Inu world travel, Where the F& is Greece!
by Chris-San
Summary: Kagome's taking a trip halfway around the world to see her father. What she doesn't plan on is somebody sneaking along with her in her luggage. Based on the trip I took back in March. Enjoy!
1. Default Chapter

****

Inuyasha Visits Greece

Rated PG-13 for swearing and suggestion.

I recently went on a trip to Greece, and naturally, I packed my imagination with me, even if I did forget my toothbrush. Anyway, at times I couldn't help but think about how certain anime characters, mainly Inuyasha, would react to some of the things I saw there. So, I wrote a fic about it. Enjoy!

Note: this starts in a sort of song fic to "Leaving on a Jet Plane." The version I own is sung my Bjork. 

*~*~*~*~*

The sound of music was the first thing that greeted Inuyasha's ears as he leapt out of the bone eater's well, and stood in the future time.

__

//All my bags are packed. I'm ready to go.  
I'm standing here outside you're door.  
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye.//

Inuyasha carefully opened the well house door a crack, listening and sniffing for anyone who might be in the vicinity. Anyone other than Kagome that is. The wench had once again slacked out of going shard hunting, all because of some stupid "test" thing she kept complaining about. The stupid thing was, she never even asked his permission to go, she just said she was going and "sat" him every time he got in her way. Well not this time. This time, he would show her who has in charge. Sit or no sit. He was going to drag her back, kicking and screaming if need be. 

__

//But the dawn is breaking. It's early morn.  
The taxi's waiting, he's blowing his horn,  
Already I'm so lonesome I could cry.//

Wait a minute, that was Kagome's voice. She was singing something. Crying? She didn't sound like she was crying. Actually, she sounded rather happy, a fact that only added to the hanyou's ire. How could she be happy when there were shards to find? Stupid wench. 

__

//So kiss me and smile for me,  
Tell me that you'll wait for me,  
Hold me like you'll never let me go.//

Quickly and silently, he dashed out of the well house and leapt onto the portion of slanted roof that was right below Kagome's window. Really he didn't get the design of this house, it seemed much too large for a girl, her mother, brother and grandfather. Cautiously, he peeked inside, and was surprised to find Kagome packing. Placing stuff in a large, flat chest of some type. Then, the words of the song sunk in...

__

//'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane,  
Don't know when I'll be back again,  
Oh babe, I hate to go.//

Inuyasha's ears perked up. Leaving? Was she coming back through the well? No, she never packed so many clothes for a trip to the well. So she was going somewhere else...and didn't know when she was coming back? Why not? And what the fuck was a jet plane? confused, the white hared demon sat down beside the window to spy on his friend. 

__

//There's so many times I've let you down,  
So many time's I've played around,  
I'll tell you now, they don't mean a thing.//

Humph. Yeah so she was weak and pathetic, big deal. Most humans were. So what if she couldn't shoot worth a damn? And what was she saying about playing around? Was there someone besides Kouga in Kagome's life? If there was, he would maul him. Didn't mean a thing, yeah right, Keh!

__

//Every step I take I'll think of you,  
Every song I sing I'll sing for you,  
When I come back, I'll wear you're wedding ring.//

Huh? Would she really think of him? Did she sing for him? Was she singing for him now?... What's a wedding ring?

__

//So kiss me and smile for me,  
Tell me that you'll wait for me,  
Hold me like you'll never let me go.//

Inuyasha felt his cheeks go warm as Kagome spun around and hugged her arms to her chest, a silly, romantic smile on her face. Was she singing for him...now?

__

//'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane,  
Don't know if I'll be back again,  
Oh babe, I hate to go.//

More of this going away stuff... wait a minute, she said if?! Now she didn't even know if she was coming back, let alone when. Was she leaving him?

__

//Now the time has come to leave you,  
One more time just let me kiss you,  
Then close you're eyes and I'll be on my way.//

Suddenly, Inuyasha's heart was thudding in his chest. She couldn't leave him. They had shards to find dammit! She just couldn't...

__

//Dream about the days to come,  
When I won't have to leave alone  
About the times, I won't have to sing.//

Why? Why was she leaving? Had he done something wrong? Where was she going? 

__

//Kiss me and smile for me,  
Tell me that you'll wait for me,  
Hold me like you'll never let me go.//

Kagome...she seemed to be so happy. Singing and...packing... 

__

//'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane,  
Don't know if I'll be back again,//

She couldn't be leaving. If she left, he'd find her and drag her back. She couldn't go! Couldn't, couldn't, could not!!

__

//I'm leaving on a jet plane,  
Leaving on a jet plane,  
Leaving on a jet plane....//

Suddenly the words seemed be coming from a great distance, and they echoed back and forth in his head. Drifting, going, leaving...farther...farther away... 

__

Leaving on a jet plane,  
don't know if I'll be back again,  
Leaving on a jet plane,  
Leaving on a jet plane....//

"...don't go..."

"Click"

His voice was cut short, as Kagome pushed a button on small box. The music stopped. 

"Ah!" Kagome gave a contented sigh and stretch as she finished her packing. Then suddenly her face became dark as she launched herself at the bag. She brought the lid down as far as the stuffing in the bag would allow it, then she tackled the lid, putting the weight of her shoulders on it. That failing, she scowled, before jumping and spinning around, so that she landed sitting on top of the bulging case. Deftly she snapped it shut, dusted her hands off, and stretched once again. "Finally! All packed!" 

Inuyasha was surprised to see a smile on her face. Did she want to go away? Go away and never come back? Did she hate him that much?

As if in answer, Kagome's happy face suddenly turned to a scowl. 

"Stupid Inuyasha, I thought I would never get home in time! Really! You'd think he'd just go and search for the shards by himself or something. Jeez" 

Inuyasha was about to jump in there and speak his mind when another voice broke Kagome's thoughts.

"Kagome! I have you're passport and tickets." 

"Coming Mama!" Kagome vacated the room, thus ruining Inuyasha's chance to yell at her. He scowled, before setting his jaw and entering the room anyway. There was no way he would let her get away with this. He would find out where she was going, one way or another!

Stealthily, he stepped up to the bed to examine the big, hard, chest thing on her bed. The thing was big! So big you could easily fit a person inside. Hey, wait a minute... 

No, Inuyasha shook his head. That was a stupid idea, and besides, why should he have to hide from her? Test his ass. She had downright lied to him! That's it! He would find out what she was really planning, and then confront her with it, and force her to admit she was wrong. Yeah, that sounded right. 

Inuyasha brought his clumsy hands up to the little clasps at the front of the "chest". The ones he'd seen Kagome use to close the thing. Carefully, he examined them, trying to figure out how they worked.

Suddenly there was a small click, and the over stuffed chest popped open, spitting it's contents out everywhere. Inuyasha panicked as Kagome's things went flying, landing on the bed, the floor and one thing even landed on Inuyasha's head. Wait a minute, wasn't that one of the things Kagome wore around her...

Inuyasha blushed, and quickly brushed the chest binding contraption off of his head. Then his panic quickly returned. He hadn't meant to make a mess this big. Kagome was going to be MAD when she saw...

"Beep, Beep!"

"Kagome, the Taxi's here!"

"Thanks Grandpa. Just let me grab my bag!"

"I'll get it nee-chan!" 

"Thanks Souta, but be careful, it's heavy!"

Inuyasha reacted before he thought. In desperation, he dove into the suitcase, causing the lid to fall down and snap shut on him, just as Souta entered the room. He lay there a moment, his heart pounding in his chest.

"tsk, tsk." Inuyasha recognized the voice of Kagome's little brother. "Nee-chan sure is messy when she packs."

"Hurry up Souta!"

"Coming! .... ngh!"

Inuyasha began to panic as he felt the case he was in, sliding off the bed, and falling roughly to the floor. He fought to keep silent as his weight was suddenly shifted directly onto his head and the rest of his body came down on top of him. Then they were sliding again, being dragged along the floor, Souta grunting in effort. 

"Jeez Nee-chan! This thing is really REALLY heavy." 

"I know, here let me help you."

"No, it's okay, I got...it... Ah!"

Suddenly, Inuyasha felt himself falling and spinning rapidly. His body was mashed and jammed into the corners of the small compartment as it bumped and smacked into unseen obstacles on it's way down. Then, he took off, briefly soaring through the air, before finally landing on his head, hard.

He dimmly heard someone say, "Oops," and then everything went black.

*~*~*~*~*

"Attention all passengers, we will now be starting our descent to Athens. Please fasten your seatbelts and remain seated until the plane has come to a complete stop before the gate. Just a note, the temperature in Athens is now 20 degrees Celsius, and local time is 6:00 am. Thank you for choosing Athena air, and enjoy your visit."

The speaker cracked off and Kagome sighed tiredly, lifting her arms above her head for a small, quick stretch. Flying was so tedious. Being in a plane felt a lot like being in a giant waiting room for hours on end. You sat there, trying not to annoy the people beside you, getting up only to go to the bathroom. But it was almost over now, and she would be there! She could see him! That alone made everything else she had gone through MORE than worth it. 

Well, maybe. She hadn't really liked lying to her friends in the warring states period, especially Inuyasha. She had told him that she would be back in two days, when really she wouldn't even be in the same country for almost two weeks. He would be mad as hell when she got back, but...this was the chance of a life time!

Kagome hadn't seen her father in almost two years now, not since he had left the country to do archaeological work on a site in Greece. He was a historian, specialising in things from the pre-historic period. The job offer had been the chance of a lifetime for him, a chance to work and study in the "birthplace of democracy." It was only a temporary position, four short years out of her whole life, and he wrote almost weekly to the family. Still, she missed him dearly. 

When her mother had told her that she might be able to go visit him for a short time, Kagome had been ecstatic, and determined. Shards or no shards, Inuyasha or not, nothing was going to stop her from taking this trip. How many other people could say that they'd travelled abroad alone? Certainly no body she knew. And how was she suppose to explain to her feudal friends the concepts of planes, and time zones, and other cultures...It was just too much. If she had to, she'd do it later, after she got back. 

*~*~*~*~*

Inuyasha awoke shivering cold, and unable to move. For a moment, he panicked. How had he gotten here? Why was he trapped in this little space? Oh yeah, he had been locked into Kagome's case. The realisation calmed him somewhat, allowing a new sensation to rise within him...He. Had. To. Pee!!

'Ohi yasus efaristo!"

"Ipalikalo, neh. Yanni!

He stopped struggling inside the case. Someone was out there, and what nonsense were they babbling? It was like no dialect he'd ever heard, hell, it didn't even sound like Japanese. What on earth...

"Epihannus, ya."

His train of thought stopped, he was moving again, or more like being moved. Someone was dragging him, and if he could have understood Greek, this is what he would have heard...

"Oh man! this one's really heavy!"

"Stop complaining and just chuck it in the cart. We still have another plane to unload after this one, and one coming in." 

"Don't remind me..."

The next thing Inuyasha knew was that he was falling again, hitting the ground again, and once again, he was unconscious. 

*~*~*~*~*

Once they were on the highway, Kagome rolled the window down as far as it could go and allowed the wind to whip her hair around. Smiling and giddy, she took in the full view. Flat, well farmed valleys curved up to be shadowed by old, rounded, stone hills, greenish grey against the cloudless morning sky. Up a head, she could just make out the beginnings of the great city, peeking out above another gently sloping groove between two hills. She beamed at everything around her, completely ecstatic. 

Her father chuckled at her from the drivers seat. An intelligent looking man in his late thirties, Kagome could see that he had changed a little since his the last time she'd seen him. His skin was stained by sunshine, forming a dark tan upon his cheerful features. Short black hair and dark glasses adorned his face, and his clothes were casual, slacks and a loose T-shirt. Actually, Kagome thought he looked really good, healthy and happy, if not just a bit lonely. 

He had greeted her at the airport with the biggest bear hug she could remember receiving in many, many years. Lifting her up and spinning her around once, before setting her down dizzy to take a long look at her. It wasn't until then that she was conscious of how much she had actually changed in the last two years. He'd smiled at her and hugged her again. She'd hugged back, almost at he point of tears.

After first greetings, they had wheeled her luggage out to the small European car that her father had leased. Kagome had been surprised at it's weight when she had picked it up. No wonder poor Souta had dropped it down the stairs, and the guy from the Taxi had to help lift it into the trunk of the car. As it was, Kagome had barely found the strength to lift it from the luggage track onto the baggage cart she'd claimed. She hadn't thought she'd packed that much stuff, but then she'd been in a hurry. Who knows what she had absentmindedly tossed in there at the time. Oh well. She turned back and smiled at the scenery, until her father cleared his throat.

"So Kagome, bring anything with you from the "Warring States Period?"

Her father's question caught her completely off guard for a moment. How did he know about that?

"You're mother wrote me about your trips through the bone eaters well. I must say I'm a bit disappointed. If I had known about the well there, I would have stayed at home and studied it, instead of travelling half way around the world." He chuckled, and Kagome smiled. 

"Actually, I didn't get a chance to think of something to bring. Whenever I go over there it's always so hectic. There's Shards and demons and...

"Demons?" was the disbelieving interruption. "Are they dangerous?"

"Well, not all of them, but Inuyasha usually takes care of the ones that are."

'Inuyasha? Is that the demon you're mother was talking about, with the ears?" 

Kagome smiled at the memory of Mama tweaking Inuyasha's ears. She was about to say something, when a muffled noise caught her attention. Instead she furrowed her brow and began searching for the source. 

"Papa, did you hear that?" 

"Hmmm?" Was his reply. Kagome continued searching

"........"

"There it is again!" 

This time her father nodded slowly before responding. "I heard it."

"I think it's coming from the back."

There was another nod as Kagome's father slowly eased the car onto the shoulder of the highway, and parked.

Being on the passenger side, Kagome instantly opened the door and stepped out onto the wide shoulder of the new highway. Cars zoomed past them on as Kagome quickly went to the trunk and popped it open. For a moment, she just stared, unable to see what could possible have made that noise, and then, her suitcase moved, and swore.

"God damn wench! When I get out of here I'm really gonna teach her!"   
*Thump thump*  
"Grrrrr."   
*whump*  
"FUCK!!"

Kagome felt the blood draining from her face as she realised exactly what, or more appropriately who was in her suitcase....

"...Inu...ya...sha..."

Suddenly the suitcase stopped moving....

"Kagome!" Asked the muffled voice, "Is that you? You'd better let me out bitch or I'll...."

"Kagome? What is it?" Her attention on Inuyasha was cut short as her father finally came around back and followed Kagome's disbelieving gaze. He scrunched his brow. 

"Is it something with your suitcase?"

When Kagome didn't respond, Mr. Higurashi reached in to open up the case, only to have Kagome stop him with a wave of her arm. Now that the initial shock had worn off, Kagome seemed to be radiating some sort of cold aura that her father had never seen in her before. Wisely, he stepped back allowing his daughter to coolly reach in and grasp the clasps of the suitcase, taking a deep breath.

"SIIIIITT!!"

Suddenly there was a strange thud sound and the car rocked with new weight. At the same instant, Kagome snapped the clasps to the suitcase, allowing the lid to spring open. What was revealed was a very cramped, very crabby half demon with his face jammed into the floor of the suitcase.

"Ngh....Grrrr! Bitch! What was that for!!"

Kagome's father just stared. There was a boy. With white hair. There was a samurai boy with white hair and dog ears in Kagome's suitcase. H...How?

"Grrrr....MOVE!!" 

He didn't have time to think as the strange boy leapt out of the trunk in a single bound, landed in the nearby ditch, and proceeded to relieve himself at the side of the road. Still Kagome and her father could just stare, one very shocked, and the other very, very cold. Kagome waited for the obvious.

No sooner had Inuyasha finished relieving himself than he spun around and stomped over to Kagome.

"Oi wench! What the hell do you think you're doing here? Who said you could just leave and...and go off on you're own to...to... to..."

He sniffed the air once, and his eyes went wide. He almost staggered backwards a moment as he took in the sights, smells, and sounds of his surroundings. He gave his head a shake, and shot a glare back at Kagome.

"Oi! Kagome, where am I?" 

Well it was about time. 

"You're in Greece." Kagome told Inuyasha flatly. Inuyasha stared at her. There was a long pause...

"... ...Where the fuck is Greece?!"

*~*~*~*~*

Notes: Usually, when you travel to Europe from Canada, you take off at night, and arrive sometime the next morning. I'm not sure if that's what happens in Japan though, and I'm also not sure what the time difference between the two is. However, I do know that when I went on a cruise with a Japanese tourist group, all of them fell asleep at around 3:00. Not one of the people from my group were as tired as they were, so I'm guessing that the Jet-lag effect from Japan is quite severe. 

As for Inuyasha in the suitcase, if anyone could survive it, you know he could. However, I believe what they do is pack suitcases into much larger crates, which they then put on the plane to their destination. In this case, I'm sure Inuyasha would first die of suffocation, then hypothermia, and if that didn't get him, the claustrophobia when he awoke soon would. Not to worry though. It's called fan FICTION for a reason :-) 


	2. I Hate Jet Lag

Chapter 2

*~*~*~*~*

Inuyasha sat in the back of the horse-less carriage, arms folded tightly across his chest as the strange contraption sped along, almost as fast as he could sprint at top speed. Every time it passed something remotely close on the road, his tense gaze would follow it along, leaving only when he was certain they were no longer in danger of hitting it. His ears were alert, swiveling upon his head at every bump, every break-whine, and every foreign noise that sounded in or outside the car. 

Truth be told, Inuyasha hated this thing, and would never have gotten into it if given the choice. Kagome however, hadn't given him a choice. The second he had asked her where he was she had simply rolled her eyes at him and walked back to the thing, muttering something about being unable to "park" here. The man Kagome was with had simply given him an apologetic, if not somewhat awe-struck look, before nodding and following Kagome's example, opening a door to allow Inuyasha to do the same.

Now, they were just sitting there, stewing in an awkward silence so thick he could have cut it with Tetsaiga. Kagome looked particularly pissed, pouting in the front of the car. Well fine, he thought. If she wasn't going to say anything, then neither was he...even if this whole weird, creepy place was starting to turn his gut. 

Not surprisingly, it was Mr. Higurashi who broke the peace. Clearing his throat, he smiled nervously and addressed his daughter. 

"Uh, Kagome dear, why don't you introduce me to you're friend?"

"And just what makes him my friend?" Came the icy reply. 

Inuyasha wondered what right this wimp had to call his Ka...er, the wench, "Dear."

Mr. Higurashi shot his daughter a disapproving look as he turned off the highway and onto the exit ramp. Inuyasha visibly tensed and flexed his hands, ready to bolt if they came too close to hitting anything. Kagome sighed, defeated.

"Inuyasha, this is my dad. He works here, and I came to visit him." She explained in an exasperated tone, as if he were a two year old. Inuyasha was desperately trying to listen to her while focusing all his attention on the cars that were stopping at the traffic light around them. She sighed and her tone suddenly turned chilling. "Dad," she said, "this is Inuyasha, the selfish, greedy, over bearding, jealous, half dog demon from the past."

Mr. Higurashi caught Inuyasha making a brief face at his daughter's back in the mirror. Then he went back to watching traffic as they moved ahead at the green light. Mr. Higurashi smiled gently. The feudal boy was putting up pretty well with the concept of a modern traffic jam.

"Call me Shinji." he said cheerfully. He watched as Inuyasha's golden eyes shot a glance at him through the mirror and went back to watching cars. Kagome was still busy pouting. Obviously, this argument wasn't going to be cleared up easily. He sighed and drove towards the Plaka district.

*~*~*~*~* 

"Alright, we're here!"

Shinji Higurashi cheerfully announced their arrival in the parking lot, stopped the car, and got out. Kagome followed him slowly, giving a full stretch and a yawn as she stepped onto the pavement, rubbing sleep from her eyes. She hadn't slept at all on the whole 9 hour flight over from Tokyo, and being awake for more than 24 hours straight was starting to get to her. Mr. Higurashi observed his daughter.

"Tired? " He asked. Kagome yawned again, covering it politely with her hand. Shinji smiled. "Sorry, but you'll have to stay up for at least another 12 hours, until tonight. If you don't, you'll never get over the jet lag."

Kagome nodded in silence, shook off some of her fatigue and glanced at the narrow streets lined with small shops selling various wares. She blinked. "Is this the Hotel?" 

Mr. Higurashi shook his head in response. "I thought we should go shopping first, since you didn't bring any clothes with you for two weeks..." Kagome brought her hand up to her forehead to ward off an oncoming headache. Mr. Higurashi chuckled a bit before continuing. "...and, I'm guessing neither did Inuyasha." 

This made sense to Kagome. She couldn't very well go around for two weeks in what she had on, and besides shopping, with her father, in Greece, could prove to be an experience. Who knew what they wore here, compared to back home. She smiled, and grabbed her father's hand, turned to go, and stopped.

"Inuyasha," she said tiredly, "are you going to get out of the car, or are you going to sit there all day?"

Actually, Inuyasha would have been all too happy to get out of the stupid, shut up, cramped little crazy carriage of death, but no matter how hard he pushed, he couldn't get the F*#%ING door to open. 

"Here." Shinji quickly walked up and pulled the door handle. The thing swung open with ease and Inuyasha cautiously stepped out onto the pavement, glancing suspiciously at his surroundings, taking in the many new sounds and smells. Mr. Higurashi gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry. I should have told you. You pull this handle here to release the door." He showed him.

Inuyasha nodded numbly in response. Now that he was outdoors again, he was becoming quickly overwhelmed by the millions of new sights, smells and sounds that were completely foreign to him. Well okay, he recognized a few. There were some small animals nearby, a few of those "car" things, and the scent of humans was absolutely plastered all over the place. There had to be thousands of people around here, he could smell them. Sweaty ones, old ones, young ones, flowery ones...and then, he could smell Kagome, which was somewhat comforting. 

Inuyasha turned his gaze to her, only to find her staring at him with a small smile on her face. Somehow, it made him angry. Here he was, ready to go crazy with all the new scents and sights around him, having no clue even as to where here was, and she was ENJOYING herself. Of course, it was all completely natural for her, a fact which made him think he must look only totally and utterly STUPID to her right now. And he hated looking stupid, especially to Kagome. 

Before he could stop himself, Inuyasha found himself growling. 

Kagome saw this, and only allowed her shoulders to droop for a second before puffing out her chest indignantly and turning to walk away. Fine, if he wanted to be a grump, let him. There was no way in hell she was going to let HIM ruin her vacation. This was supposed to be HER time, with HER father. How dare he come along and try to spoil it. She wouldn't allow it. No matter what, she was going to have fun!

*~*~*~*~*

Unfortunately, Kagome's sense of "fun" was slightly warped at the moment due to her extreme exhaustion. It consisted mainly of ducking in and out of shops, smiling and laughing with her father, trying on new clothes, thanking the people who helped her, and looking coolly at Inuyasha every time something went wrong.

For his part, Inuyasha tried to focus on something other than Kagome's mood. It wasn't hard. He was too busy looking wide eyed at the world around him, while the world around him sometimes stared wide eyed back. Everything about this world was different, right from the base up. The ground was constantly covered by some hard type of stone, that seemed to flow and stick, and then freeze like clay. Instead of wood, the houses were built from hard, cold stone, and seemed like palaces until he realized that a great many people lived in one of these buildings, which were sectioned off to separate rooms. More surprising than that, these people preferred to live one on top of each other, instead of beside each other. Didn't those tall buildings ever fall down? Weren't they afraid? 

Well maybe not, the people themselves looked strange anyway. They had pale skin, bulging eyes and long pointed faces that made them look snobbish and cold. Indeed they seemed cold, walking along, weaving through thick crowds of people without once hitting or looking at any of them, as if they were simply objects and not actually people. Inuyasha tried it, and almost always got bumped or brushed. The people never even looked back, as if he didn't exist at all. Even more unnerving was how tall they all were. Inuyasha didn't consider himself to be an overly large person, but he'd never thought of himself as short. Here, even some of the women could look down on him from where he stood, especially if they wore those shoes that gave them extra height. 

And that was simply what his regular senses told him. To his heightened senses, his nose and ears, the air was positively choked and oily. The scents of the few trees and plants nearby were completely strange to him in every possible way, other than the fact that they were plants. Something was always rotting, especially the piles of "garbage" as Kagome's dad called it. Sometimes, he couldn't help but cough and cover his nose while they walked by, the world tipping sideways ever so slightly. More disturbing than any of that though, the air itself smelled completely strange. It was too salty, too warm, too old smelling, and just completely foreign in every possible way. Even in Kagome's time, he could at least recognize something in the air as familiar. Here it just gave him this constant, liquidy feeling within his stomach. He felt like he was so far away from home he would never be able to get back. Meanwhile, the sounds of a completely new world were swirling around him, made only more incomprehensible by the fact that they were in a completely different language. It was like standing in the middle of a river, trying to stop the water from rushing by with a stick. He stood, they moved, and he never caught any of it. 

Truth be told, he had never felt more lost in his whole life. He wasn't about to lose it though, damned if he let Kagome see that. If she wasn't afraid of this weird, tall, cold, stone world, than neither was he. He only wished she would stop acting like such a bitch and talk to him so he could ask her some stuff. It wasn't like Kagome to be so angry with him all the time, even when he knew he deserved it. Maybe she really had been planning on leaving him forever. Maybe she really hated his guts and would do anything to get away from him. Or maybe he was just acting like a wimp. It didn't matter what she thought, he was a half demon, he didn't need anybody! Least of all that sappy, cranky mortal girl...Kagome... 

*~*~*~*~*

Mr. Higurashi sighed. It had been a long day so far, and it was barely half way over. 

Their first stop of the day had been a shoe store, considering, of all things essential, that was what Inuyasha lacked most. He had been rather surprised to find that the boy was accustomed to running around barefoot all over the place. However, even Inuyasha hadn't protested too much against a pair of shoes after the first garbage heap they had come across. Unfortunately, there was a civil servants strike in the city, which meant that there had been no garbage collection in the whole of Athens for eight days. Thus, the garbage had piled up high on every other street corner in the area, attracting the odd rat and stinking to high heaven. Nobody wanted to be barefoot around that, so Inuyasha had allowed Mr. Higurashi to buy him a pair of shoes. Kagome had also picked up a pair of nice sandals. 

After that however, everything seemed up hill. Inuyasha argued that he liked his clothes. He didn't care if he stood out or not, he was used to it. Mr. Higurashi wasn't going to press him, but then Kagome had stepped in and protested until Inuyasha finally caved, sometimes even resorting to using the rosary around his neck. It made Shinji wince. The young man was very proud and spirited, and obviously hated lowering himself to the level of charity. However, the word "sit" added injury to insult, so he stopped. 

All in all, as the morning progressed, neither of the young pair spoke to much each other, except when they were arguing. Shinji had tried several times to maybe start up a conversation with the strange, hanyou boy, however, it had proved impossible. While Kagome chatted constantly, Inuyasha seemed to prefer staying back behind, just a few paces. He was obviously very uncomfortable with the number of people constantly milling around him and brushing up against him. He was also confused about many of the things he saw, but he kept his mouth clamped shut like a vice. The only time he opened his mouth was to argue, swear, or grumble incoherently about something. His favorite word to use when addressing Kagome was "wench."

*~*~*~*~*

There had been at least one little adventures in the days shopping so far. It had started when one of the infamous shawl ladies had targeted Inuyasha as her prey. These older, unemployed women were well known around the Plaka, or where tourists were common. Their routine was fairly regular. They'd spot somebody walking by, hobble up to them as pathetically as possible and ask them to buy a shawl/tablecloth/fertility charm (yes fertility charm) that their "Mother" had supposedly hand made. If the victim even so much as made eye contact with the lady, he was doomed. Doomed to walk the next five blocks being chased by this lady selling a hand made shawl for 40 euro, when really it had been bought at a store for about 10 euro.

Inuyasha, of course, would just happen to find the one shawl lady that happened to speak a bit of broken Japanese. And of course, being the innocent, loud mouthed, country boy from the Sangoku Jidai that he was, didn't realise how these sympathy sharks worked. The second the lady addressed him, he'd simply looked at her stunned for a moment while she told her story and then proceeded to barter with the confused hanyou about prices for the shawl. 

"No..." 

"Then 35$. I sell you for 35$" 

"Look. I don't have any mon..."

"25$. Please, my mother make. She very old. Only 25$" 

"I said no, now leave me alone!"

"Please 20$ please! My mother! Please 20$!!"

"NO!!"

At this point Inuyasha had turned and hurriedly stalked after Shinji and Kagome who were window shopping in front of another clothes store. He caught up, nodded that they could go now, and then felt something lightly brush against his back. 

"Please 15$. 15$ Please you, 15$. My mother..."

"RRrrrrraaaugghH!!" Inuyasha roared and turned around to yell in the ladies face. " NO! I SAID NO, AND I MEAN..."

"Ah!! Inuyasha! SIT!!" 

"Bitch, what was that for?"

Kagome ignored him and walked up to the lady. "I'm sorry. He's very rude. I hope he didn't scare you, grandmother."

"Is okay. You buy shawl! My mother hand make it. Please, 35$, Please..."

Mr. Higurashi had stopped her right there, instructing her in Greek to leave them and go away. Realizing she wouldn't get anywhere with an experienced local, the shawl lady had simply thrown him the dirtiest glare Inuyasha had ever seen a baba use, and walked up to a new victim. 

*~*~*~*~*

By noon, the morning's shopping had yielded quite a load. Kagome had acquired several new skirts, pants, sandals, shirts, blouses and even a few tank tops, one of which she was wearing right now, along with a pair of capri-pants. Inuyasha had just glared at her when she'd bought them. Okay, so they were a little revealing, even for her taste, but it was hot here! Besides, they were of the modest kind, not the belly high, spaghetti strapped type that most of the other female tourists were wearing. They weren't that bad. 

Kagome saw her father check his watch, and turn to smile at her. She smiled back brightly, realizing once again how much she'd really missed him. 

"Well, I think it's about time we introduced you to some fine Greek cuisine. What do you say, Kagome?" He asked her. Kagome grinned from ear to ear, and nodded vigorously. 

Shinji glanced back over his shoulder to look at Inuyasha, who was standing a few meters behind, arms folded over his chest, an annoyed scowl on his face. He was wearing a pair of slightly baggy blue jeans, a white T-shirt, covered by another loose casual shirt with the buttons undone. They hadn't bothered to cover his ears or eyes, or any of his demonic features for that matter. Being in a big city, people simply glanced at him once, and assumed he was just another punk kid trying to make a fashion statement. 

"What do you think, Inuyasha? Ready for some grub?" Shinji asked him light heartedly. 

Inuyasha snorted. "Feh! Fine. Let's go eat before you stupid weak humans collapse." 

His indifferent tone was suddenly betrayed by the audible grumble of his stomach. Mr. Higurashi raised an eyebrow, amused, while Kagome suddenly realized just how long it must have been since Inuyasha had eaten. It was approximately 24 hours ago, when they'd had lunch in the Sangoku Jidai...or was it more than 30, because they'd switched time zones? Thinking about it made Kagome's very tired head hurt, so she just turned and smiled kindly at Inuyasha. 

Inuyasha, of course, took it in completely the wrong way. Was that PITY he caught in her eyes? Shit! Did he really look that pathetic? Clenching his teeth, Inuyasha shot Kagome a threatening glare. He was still a long shot away from being helpless. Even if this world was freaky.

Kagome's anger flared up. So he was still intent on being a jerk? Well fine! See if she gave a damn. And with that, she spun on her heel, grabbed her fathers arm, and dragged him off to a nearby cafe. Inuyasha followed not too far behind. 

*~*~*~*~*

Shinji could only pray that lunch would help bring some sort of truce between the two warring youths. He could tell something had just happened between the two of them to, once again, raise their ire at one another. It was almost humorous to watch. The second Inuyasha was ready to forgive Kagome, Kagome did something to piss him off. The instant Kagome decided to be nice to Inuyasha, Inuyasha would make some insulting remark and end up face down on the pavement. How on earth did these two manage to get along together to carry on their quest? It was ridiculous! 

Alas, the gods were not merciful, and lunch brought no such reprieve. When they sat down, Kagome had pulled her chair up as close to her father as she possibly could, and began chatting away about everything and nothing, intent on ignoring Inuyasha. Inuyasha repeatedly tapped his fingers against the top of the glass table in an annoyed fashion, decidedly counter-ignoring Kagome's attempt to ignore him. 

The arrival of lunch didn't help any either. While Shinji tried to patiently show the ego filled demon how to use a fork and knife, Kagome munched her food quietly. She only leaked out the slightest hint of her sub-zero mood when the demon insisted he didn't need a lowly human to show him how to eat, and promptly tried to turn the utensils around and use the handles of them as chop sticks. Someone at a nearby table had laughed, and even if he didn't speak Greek, the frustrated boy had suspected the laugh was aimed towards him. Inuyasha had almost jumped up and cut the guy in half with his claws. Luckily though, Shinji convinced the hanyou that the man had been laughing at something else. 

Sometime between lunch and dessert, Kagome left to visit the bathroom, finally giving the eager historian a chance to converse with the strange dog-demon from 400 years in the past. Mr. Higurashi smiled at him and tried to lighten the mood. "I'm sorry about Kagome, she must be tired from the flight. She isn't usually like this."

A snort. "What do you mean? The wench is always like this!" Inuyasha was slouching in his chair, his arms folded over his stomach, and his eyes lightly closed. Suddenly, Mr. Higurashi realized that it wasn't just Kagome that was tired. Inuyasha too, was suffering from the severe change in time zones. Maybe he should the sight seeing short for today, before somebody ended up hurt, either from a claw attack, or a severe round of "sits." 

Before he could think of something else to say, Kagome had returned. Dessert followed, and once again an invisible wall was formed across the center of the table. Inuyasha ate his baklava in silence. Granted though, Shinji didn't think anyone could talk after shoving a full serving of baklava into his mouth with one bite. The kid seemed to like at least one thing from this world. 

*~*~*~*~* 

Shinji paid the bill soon they were off again, heading back to the car. "I think we've finished with the shopping for now at least. How would you like to do some sight seeing, Kagome?" 

"Would I!" came the eager response. "Look, the Acropolis is right over there! I've been looking at it all day, and I want to go see it!!"

Inuyasha lazily directed his gaze over to where Kagome was pointing, to once again see a pile of old rock buildings falling all over each other on top of a high hill. Keh! What was so interesting about them? It was just a pile of funny shaped rocks. Compared to the other stone and glass buildings around here, it was pretty pathetic. 

"All right then, let's go."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and followed the human and the wench back to the terrible "car" thing.

*~*~*~*~* 

"Actually, the word acropolis means 'highest point.' There are many acropolis' all over Greece, on the highest point of every ancient city." 

Inuyasha wished the old man would stop talking and pay attention to where he was going. Once again he sat in the back middle seat, scrunched up as far away from the sides of the car as possible, ears and eyes listening and watching everything that went by. Luckily, it wasn't a very far drive. The heat in the car and the constant motion had been making him feel ill, or maybe that was caused by the sickening fear that something could smash into them at any time, ending all their lives instantly.

They got out of the car, Inuyasha operating the "handle" thing perfectly and stepping out on his own. What stood before him was a big grove of strange, silvery green trees, surrounded by a carpet of small, pretty white flowers. It looked almost peaceful, Inuysasha thought as they walked along, until a strange tingling feeling began to creep it's way over his flesh.

Inuyasha suddenly stopped, and after a moment, so did Kagome and her Father. Annoyed, Kagome put her hands on her hips before a teasing glint flashed through her eyes. 

"Come on you weak demon. What are you waiting for? You can't be tired already." Kagome managed to almost perfectly imitate Inuyasha's usual "we can't stop here" speech. 

"What? Why you!!" Inuyasha snapped and took a step forward, ready to give Kagome a piece of his mind. Unfortunately, in his anger, he'd completely forgotten why he had stopped in the first place. 

"sssssssSSSSSSNAP!!!" 

Without warning the air around him suddenly snapped to life and he was blasted back a about ten feet before landing hard on his back. The shield hummed in warning for a second, and then went silent again. Kagome and Mr. Higurashi stared wide eyed, as did a few other passers by. 

"Stupid, damn FUCK!!" Inuyasha swore as he pressed his hand to his forehead where the skin had cracked from the shield's magic. Kagome and Mr. Higurashi came up and kneeled beside him. For a moment, Inuyasha thought he saw that same caring look Kagome's face always had when he got hurt. 

"What was that?" Mr. Higurashi stared up the path in disbelief. Inuyasha shook his head and to clear it and quickly stood up, ignoring Kagome's offered hand. He let his hand go from his forehead where the small split in the skin had already started healing. He growled with indignity at having been stopped by this one simple shield. Why the hell was the thing even here? 

"Why would a shield be here?" Kagome asked, her mind working in sync with Inuyasha's.

"Shield?" Mr. Higurashi seemed to contemplate this for a moment. "Maybe...the temple at the top?..."

"Temple?" Inuyasha asked. So THAT was what was at the top of this dumb rock. A fucking temple. He snorted and wandered over to sit under a nearby tree, arms crossed, eyes closed. 

"Inuyasha, where are you going?" Kagome asked with only a hint of annoyance. Inuyasha grunted, keeping his eyes closed.

"Isn't it obvious?" He grouched, "I'm going to sit here and wait until you go see that temple and come back down. Then we can go home and get back to looking for shards, instead of wasting time here!"

Any sympathy Kagome might have had for the demon vanished at the mention of the word "shards." In an instant even Mr. Higuragshi had to step aside in fear of the flaming aura that erupted from his daughter. She balled her hands into fists and let out a half scream half roar in frustration.

"ARGH!! That's IT!!!" Possessed by her anger, she stomped forward fearlessly and hovered above the cringing demon. He tried to look annoyed, but it wasn't easy. He could feel Kagome's power seeping off of her and onto his chest as she grasped the front of his shirt and yanked him upwards to face her. It pricked and tingled, ready to blast him apart at any moment. He grit his teeth and stared death in the face...

Kagome returned the fierce stare, looking into his eyes a moment, rage plane on her face...and then she sighed. Quick as it had started, the flame in her petered and died, and Kagome just looked incredibly tired. A moment later, she dropped Inuyasha loosely back onto his rump. 

He blinked once, and watched her retreating form as she began, once again to climb the path to the top of the mountain. Shinji made a move to follow her, but Kagome stopped him. Somebody had to baby-sit Inuyasha, and Kagome wasn't going to stand for another moment within visual distance of him. Without another word, she turned and walked off alone.

*~*~*~*~*

Notes: No I did not make up the garbage strike at random, it was actually going on when we got there. It was pretty disconcerting, walking out onto Athens pavement for the first time only to run directly into a mini garbage dump on the sidewalk. However, it ended the day we got there, and a week later walking around wasn't a problem anymore. 

Yes the shawl ladies DO exist, and they are NOT exaggerated. One poor guy in our tour group ended up buying a tablecloth just to make the damned lady go away. A block later he saw the same type of cloth in a window for less than half the price. I walked away from one, only to turn around and find her still following me several blocks later. To be honest, they look pathetic enough, and if there weren't so many of them, you'd probably be tempted to buy their wares just out of pure pity, but don't be fooled. The tourist districts in Athens are FULL of these types of moochers, and buying from one means that the others are only MORE likely to follow you around. 

Remember, sightseeing is no fun to do on your own. It's much more enjoyable to go with someone, so they can listen to your ooo's and aaah's of admiration, and you theirs. Otherwise, you're just looking at funny shaped rocks.

And oh yeah, the first day of travelling is always the worst for jet lag. People should always be forgiven for what comes out of their mouths on that day, they just don't have the energy or attention to realize what their saying. :-P


	3. Reflections, and Scary Greek Men

Chapter 3

*~*~*~*~*

Kagome sighed as she stared up at the huge marble structure in front of her. It was really amazing! Over 2000 years old...too bad it was almost impossible to see past the facade of it with all the scaffolding on it. She sighed again. Had her father been here, he would have explained everything about this temple to her, probably in more detail than any tour guide could. But then stupid Inuyasha had shown up, and ruined everything. Jerk. Why was he so intent on destroying her life? 

She stood back and tried to get a decent shot of the front of the Parthenon. Unfortunately, it didn't work as there were about 50 people in her way. So instead she settled for a pretty crummy shot of some pillars and scaffolding. Having finished that, she walked over to the small battlement, squeezed her way to the edge, and rested her arms on the thick stone walls. The city looked amazing, stretching out like a solid dish, stark white, curving up into the feet of the gray-green mountains. It was absolutely stunning...not that anybody was there to listen to her usual coos of admiration. She sighed, again...stupid Inuyasha. Might as well go back down. 

She found her father and Inuyasha sitting quietly under that same olive tree. Her father had treated himself to a slushy of some sort, and offered her a second one he'd already bought. Kagome had half-heartedly thanked him and turned to head back to the car. The men followed her, forming a procession as quiet as a death march.

*~*~*~*~*

Shinji sighed as he pulled into the underground parking, only slightly aware of Inuyasha ducking in the rear-view mirror, lest they scratch the ceiling. While they had been left alone, Shinji had once again tried to strike up a conversation with his companion. Inuyasha had flat out ignored him, preferring instead to sit alone in silence. He hadn't even glanced up at the slushy Shinji had offered him. He had hoped to make it some sort of a peace offering, but the demon seemed to have already decided he wanted nothing to do with the elder Higurashi. If that was so, this could turn into one ugly holiday. 

Kagome too had been silent the whole ride home. Her eyes drifting shut and her body slowly slouching forward until she suddenly snapped back awake like she'd received an electric shock, only to repeat the process again and again. 

They stayed silent as they got into the elevator and made their way up to the room, bags in hand. Inuyasha darted his eyes nervously around in the small space they were temporarily confined to. Just another modern convenience he'd learn to grow accustomed to. 

They'd reached their room, which was very small, consisting only of one bedroom and one bathroom. Mr. Higurashi's income didn't allow for much luxury. It was enough to support his family, pay for his own food, and lease a small room out in the country near where he worked. He'd been saving up for this vacation with Kagome for months now, and he'd already spent most of their spare cash on cloths for Kagome and Inuyasha. Oh well. He would be able to get an advance on his next pay check, if it was absolutely necessary. Not that he minded in the least. He only hoped that the rest of the trip wouldn't be as dismal as today had been. Otherwise it would be a complete waste of cash. 

Right now though, he had to go downstairs and see about getting an extra cot for Inuyasha, seeing as how there were only two single beds in the room. Explaining this to Kagome, he left, heading down the elevator and to the front desk. 

*~*~*~*~*

Kagome watched her father leave before heading out to the balcony tiny to take in the view, or the lack there of. She could see the street below, and the buildings across the way, but that was it. Stone and more stone. 

"Humph." For the first time, Kagome noticed the figure standing beside her, on the far side of the balcony. Inuyasha. He'd changed back into his medieval clothing, though Kagome felt a little too drained to care. 

"It's disgusting." he huffed. "Why the hell would you want to come here?"

Kagome sighed. "Well, I didn't exactly drag you over here Inuyasha." Her voice gained in venom as she muttered. "In fact, I never wanted you to come here in the first place."

Inuyasha shot her a glare. "Well maybe I didn't want YOU coming here either. Fuck! Do you know how much time we're wasting in this stinking place? Feh! We could be out searching for..."

"That's exactly WHY I wanted to come here! To get away from YOU and your STUPID SHARDS!!" She yelled at him. 

"Bah! Stupid Shards? I'll tell you what's stupid, the bitch that BROKE the jewel in the first place! And NOW she's trying to run away from having to fix it like the weakling wench that she is."

"Grrrrr!! I'm NOT weak! Believe it or not I HAVE saved your butt more than a few times during battles, especially when you turn human!" 

"WENCH!! Are you saying that I'm WEAK?!"

"I'm saying that you're an idiot!! And a Jerk!! And I HATE YOU!!"

"WELL GOOD! 'CAUSE I HATE YOU TOO!!"

"WELL FINE!! THEN YOU CAN JUST STAY OUT OF MY WAY!!"

And with that, Kagome stomped into the hotel room, slamming the sliding door behind her. 

*~*~*~*~*

When Shinji re-entered the small room, he almost bumped into Kagome as she emerged from the bathroom, fully clothed, towelling her hair dry. When she sat down on the bed, he saw that her eyes were red, as if she'd been crying. Silently, he sat down and put an arm around her. She sighed and leaned back on him. He didn't have to think hard to realize what had happened.

"Did you enjoy your shower?" he asked quietly. Kagome nodded. "Any problems with anything?" He asked again. Kagome sighed. 

"I got the packets of Conditioner and Shampoo mixed up, and I didn't close the curtain quite right, so..."

"It's okay." Her father reassured her, chuckling. "There isn't really anything that can get wet there anyway, unless you're worried about tiles."

Kagome nodded again, into his shirt. "It's hard to believe how many of the little things are so different here." he continued on, almost wistful. "It takes some time to get used to, even I haven't completely adjusted."

"Yeah. I don't know how you do it Papa. Sometimes I get homesick, just staying in the Sangoku Jidai." 

"Hmmm." he sighed. "Well, it wasn't easy. Honestly there were a lot of times I just wanted to pack up and go home I missed you guys so much." He gave her a squeeze with his arm, and she hugged him back. "Luckily though, some of the guys stepped up and gave me a hand. We're all sort of the same. Most of them are from countries in Europe, but like me, they don't see their families as much as they like. We go out sometimes after work, eat dinner at a taverna or sometimes a nearby restaurant. We keep each other company, help each other out. To be honest, I don't think I would have made it without their friendship." He admitted. 

"It's scary," he said after a moment's pause. "You're in a strange place, surrounded by people you don't understand, and who can't understand you. You're afraid to act like a foreigner, because people will always take advantage that. You try to act natural, but can't because you don't understand, and you don't know who to ask. Honestly Kagome, you feel really lost. Like a fish trying to swim in the Sahara. "

He finished his speech and waited as Kagome leaned against him, in silence. For a moment, he thought she might have fallen asleep, but then she sighed, and moved to sit up on her own.

"I need to go talk to him." she said standing up. Mr. Higurashi just nodded as Kagome headed over to the balcony door. She stopped, hand on the handle, and glanced back at him for reassurance. When he smiled, she took a deep breath and stepped out onto the balcony. Seconds passed. 

Kagome threw the door open and ran back into the room. Her eyes wide, she took one look at him and gulped.

"Papa! He's not there!!"

*~*~*~*~*

Inuyasha breathed a sigh of relief as he finally cleared the edge of the city, and made his way up the stony mountain before him. Once again he had to shake off a hopeless feeling as he saw the strange prickly plants surrounding him on the mountain side. They were completely unlike anything he'd ever seen before, just like everything else he'd come into contact with today. Once again, that little voice in the back of his head told him that he was too far away from home, that he'd never make it back, because it was impossible. He shrugged it off and continued up the side of the mountain. If Kagome wanted to be left alone, then that was fine with him. He didn't need her, he didn't need anyone. He could find his own way home just fine, he would show her. Stupid Kagome. Stupid, damned, fucking, wen...

He stopped. 

Standing on the top of the mountain, Inuyasha took in the breathtaking 360 degree pan all around him, the breeze blowing his shimmering hair, reflecting orange and pink from the impending sunset. Suddenly, Inuyasha felt like crying. 

It was the same, all the same, as far as the eye could see. All strange, all foreign, nothing giving even a hint of familiarity to show him his way home. He was lost. Totally and utterly lost. He would never find his way back home now, he would be stuck in this strange place for the rest of his unnaturally long life. No more friendly trees to sleep in, no more small quiet villages, hell, at least at home he could it understand when people insulted him. Here, he couldn't even tell the difference between hello and goodbye... 

Home... odd, Inuyasha had always believed that he didn't have one of those, didn't need one. Homes were places where you kept your junk, and always came back to after travelling around for a long time. It was where people waited for you, people you knew and cared for, it was where you felt peaceful and safe. It was also, as far as Inuyasha was concerned, a bunch of crock. Since he was a kid, he had always traveled around, never returning to the same place twice. He could survive, he didn't need a bunch of useless possessions, and people were just a pain in the ass. 

But now...Standing there, on that large chunk of rock in a strange place, he suddenly pictured a familiar scene. They were waiting for him, sitting by the well. the Bozou resting in the shade, while Sango practiced with her giant boomerang. Kirara played with the brat in the grass around the well, waiting...

...and he was here...wherever that was. He should be there, as odd as it sounded to admit. Being stuck here, made there feel like home. He wanted to go back there, he admitted to himself, but he couldn't. Instead he was trapped, in a strange place, with strange, big people driving stupid, crazy car things and talking some nonsense instead of proper Japanese. On top of that, the only person he could talk to was behaving like a total bitch, dragging him everywhere and not explaining anything to him, ignoring him on purpose, getting angry over nothing...and ...and....

Inuyasha scowled. Was this how Kagome felt when she traveled with him? When they first met? She hadn't known a thing about youkai, or their kind. He'd still insulted her, dragged her all over the country, complaining whenever they had to stop and rest, getting into dangerous battles and nearly getting her killed. Did she hate being stuck there as much as he hated being trapped here? Probably, he grudgingly admitted to himself... probably.

He sighed as he stood and headed back down the mountain, aware that he was almost smiling, ruefully. Karma had found a strange way of coming back to bite him in the ass, and he had to give it credit for that. He would go back and see Kagome. He would show her! He could face this world just like she could face his. Hopefully he could somehow patch things up with her without actually having to apologize... and if she had meant what she'd said about not wanting to see him, then at the very least, she would be able to tell him which way to go to get back...home.

*~*~*~*~*

Kagome turned another corner and grimaced at what she saw, which was nothing familiar, again. She knew she was lost now, and would have smacked herself if she'd thought it could help any. Her father had told her to stay in the hotel while he went out looking for Inuyasha, but had she listened? Of course not. Now, here she was, wandering around the nearly deserted streets of the Athens city core, after dark, alone, and totally lost. She sighed, Inuyasha was right, she was stupid. 

Unfortunately, moping wasn't going to help her any, and so Kagome set her jaw again, and headed in what she guessed was the right direction. She growled at herself as she walked. Her father was probably going nuts with worry right now, and Inuyasha too if he'd been found. If not, then Inuyasha was probably still out there somewhere, on top of the highest building in the city, totally confused and lost... or maybe he was hurt?! Inuyasha didn't have a clue about modern weapons, hydro wires, highways... what if something terrible had happened to him? Stupid! This was all her fault!!

"Yasus"

Kagome jerked out of her reverie as a voice broke the empty atmosphere of the street. She stopped and searched around for it's origin, her eyes resting on the form of an older man leaning up against a light post, cigarette in hand. She was about to ignore him and move on, but stopped. Thinking hard, she shoved her hand into her pocket, and pulled out the card she had brought with her with the Hotel's address. This man didn't look dangerous. He was over 40, dressed in nice but casual clothing, his black hair was brushed and gelled. He looked safe, Kagome thought, so, swallowing her nervousness about speaking to strangers in a unfamiliar places, she walked up to him and showed him the card.

"I'm lost." She said simply in her best English. She figured there was a better chance of him understanding that than Japanese. 

The man looked at her, then at the card, then at her again. He seemed think for a moment, then said, "You want go 'ere?" His accent was strange and it took Kagome a minute to figure out what he'd said. Finally she nodded. 

The man's face parted into a bright smile, and he said something Kagome couldn't understand, but he was laughing and smiling, and Kagome took this to be a good sign. He gently reached up and grabbed her hand, which startled Kagome a bit, and began to walk with her. Kagome sighed. What luck! This guy was actually going to take the time to lead her straight to her hotel. She relaxed a bit as they turned a corner. She was so tired. 

Suddenly, something brushed against her thigh, and Kagome stopped to see what she had walked into. Before she realized what was happening, another hand snaked it's way around her waist and pulled her into a body. Her blood ran cold. What was happening? Frantically she looked around to see that she was now in a dark alleyway, with walls on three sides. She nearly screamed as she felt hot breath, and a kiss slipping across her neck. What was happening? Why were they here? What was he doing?!! 

"Efaristo palakalo nasu Baby?"

His advances became bolder as Kagome's blood froze. The one word she'd understood out of the whole line. Baby!! Oh god no! No, no, NO!! 

Her mind kicked into gear, and she struggled as the strange man began to massage her bottom and legs, coming dangerously close to the apex of her thighs. She pushed against him, but he pulled her closer. She tried to scream, but she found she couldn't breath as he slobbered kisses all over her neck. She turned her head, struggling to keep her lips away from his. He pushed her back into a wall. She was crying now. He repeated the word "baby" again through his senseless babble. "Baby...baby...fun time...baby..."

"NO!!" She screamed, pounding his chest. "NO! STOP!! HELP!!" Why did she feel so weak? Her knees were barely supporting her. A hand raced up her front and began to pull at the buttons on her blouse. They popped off onto the ground and he slid his hand in and felt her through her bra. She tried to free her hands but they were pinned up against his chest as he rubbed his lower self against her. There was a bulge in his pants.

"INUYASHAAAAA!!!" She didn't know how long she had been screaming his name. She was so terrified. This didn't feel real. A nightmare, and she couldn't wake up. "HELP!!! INUYASHAA!!!" The blood pounded in her veins, her breaths short as she battled her attacker and consciousness at the same time. There was no air, but she had to scream, she had to stay awake, she had to! Otherwise he would... he would...

She blinked. He wasn't there.

Desperately she looked around. She was still here, still leaning against the back wall of the ally, but he was gone. How?

"BASTARD!!"

She snapped her head in the direction of the voice, swaying slightly at the sudden movement. She saw a blur, two blurs. The baggy, flappy one was driving the other one away, punching and swearing. She was safe, she was safe, she was...

Her knees gave out under her, and she sank to the bottom of that filthy alleyway, glass and trash shifting and scraping beneath her. Instinctively she tried to catch her breath, and calm her heart as it hammered in her chest. That was how Inuyasha found her, kneeling on the ground, head lolled forward into her chest as she hugged herself and her torn shirt tightly, trying to wipe her tears away at the same time. Some of the rage he had been feeling died as he watched her, only to be replaced by shared sorrow and pain ...Kagome...

She jumped a bit as she felt something drape over her head and around her body. Startled, she looked up to find Inuyasha staring down at her, his fire rat fir hanging around her small form. Inuyasha! She swallowed hard and pulled the cloth around her tightly, trying to sort out the emotions and thoughts that were running through her heart. He'd saved her. Inuyasha had saved her.

He was torn. What could he do now? Somehow, Inuyasha highly doubted anything he could say or do would be able to make it better. However he had to try. Cautiously, he lowered himself to his haunches and tried to catch a glimpse of her face, not surprised at what he saw there. Kagome was a wreak.

Meanwhile, Kagome thought. "He saved me. Inuyasha saved me. I ignored him, I was mean, I said I hated him, and then he goes and saves me?!"

"Kagome..."

She looked up at him, large baleful eyes brimming bright with tears, puffy and wet. She looked hurt, spiritually wounded ...and then she looked...guilty? Scared? Inuyasha set his jaw, slightly panicked. The look she gave him, it reminded him of the way a worthless dirty being looked upon a holy savior. Hurt from the attack. Awed that such a creature would see fit to save such obvious trash. Terrified that their savior might be disgusted with their appearance, and even more so, in case they decide to kill _them_ as well. Guilty... as if knowing they deserved it.... 

...Why was she looking at him like that? As if he could shatter her at the bat of an eyelash. Coming from Kagome, it was just so fucking wrong. She never looked like this, as if she blamed herself, hated herself, never. Afraid, He stopped breathing, almost sure he would blow her away with even the lightest stirring of his lungs. 

Before him, Kagome slowly pushed herself up onto all fours, and shuffled a few tentative inches closer, eyes begging him, pleading him to give her something. Something she desperately needed, yet sure he would be disgusted if she asked. She stopped just out of arms reach of him, and waited for him to push her away. 

He didn't, and after a hesitant minute, her small hand climbed up into the space between them and thrust outward, stopping just short of touching him. It hung there a few minutes, as her lips trembled and her body shook. Her fingers were just inches from the fabric of his shirt twitching, trembling, reaching... but too afraid to touch. He watched her, confused a second, before leaning just slightly forward, allowing her hand to contact his clothing. 

The touch was like an electrical shock going through Kagome's body, as all the dams on her control suddenly broke. Inuyasha nearly yelped as Kagome jerked him forward, holding the front of his shirt in a death grip as if it were the only thing connecting her to life. He fell to his knees as Kagome let out a sob and rushed forward like an unsteady infant on three limbs. As soon as she was close enough, her other hand came up, wrapped tightly around his neck, and pulled the rest of her forward onto his lap. Having accomplished that, she buried her face in the collar of his shirt and cried, tears soaking the fabric almost instantly. Before Inuyasha even had a chance to blush, she was talking to him. Moving her mouth she formed tortured words from the gut wrenching sobs, spurting uncontrollably from her mouth. 

"Inuyasha...Im, I'm sorry...I'm so, so sorry" she blurted hysterically, "....I didn't, didn't mean ...I ... you didn't know...and I, I was so, mean, to, you ...and then you, you..." She broke off sobbing a moment before whimpering quietly "...god... you must hate me!" 

She couldn't continue after that, and for a moment, all Inuyasha could do was sit there, shell shocked. She was apologizing? To him?! Why? He'd been as much of a jerk as she had. And what else had she said? Did Kagome actually think that he would...that he could?

"Kagome." He said her name almost as if it was a command, prying her off of him so he could look directly at her. He stated plainly. "Idiot, you're talking shit. I don't hate you, so stop putting words in my mouth!" 

Kagome took a moment to absorb this, and then buried her face in his chest again and proceeded to sob with renewed vigor. Inuyasha panicked, realizing that maybe insulting the distraught girl hadn't been the wisest thing to do. Desperately he tried to think of a way to say he was sorry, without actually saying he was sorry.

"Kagome, uh...listen, I...um...think..."

"Thank you, Inuyasha..."

He stopped and looked down, almost gawking. She was thanking him now? Why? Didn't SHE hate HIS guts? He looked down at the top of her head and decided to just shut up and accept it before he screwed it up again royally. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace, holding her close, while she continued to cling to him. Sighing, he breathed in her scent, and lightly nuzzled her shoulder. This time, his voice was gentle when he spoke. "Kagome, it's okay... Just... stop crying."

Slowly, her breathing began to even out, and the sobs died from harsh cries, to shuddering sighs, to small puffs, and finally nothing. Inuyasha sighed in relief as he looked down at the girl in his arms and realized that she was asleep. Stupid human, he thought, but he simply couldn't bring himself to wake her. Instead, he untangled his arm from the embrace, and gently slid it under her knees. Carrying her like that, he lifted her up and leapt onto the rooftops. Retracing his scent, he headed back to the hotel building, leaping between the opposing star studded planes of the city and the sky.

*~*~*~*~*

Notes: No, Grecian men are not all horny rapists. However, a lot of them do seem convinced that they are god's gift to women, and that a woman, upon seeing them, would rather die than not have sex with them. Foreign women are especially seen in this light, as movies and cheesy romance novels tend to portray all western woman as easy and lusty. My advice is that if you do go to Greece, and are not a male, avoid wandering around alone, and near groups of males. Even older males are not an exception. I had a guy who looked almost 60 ask if he could take me to bed, and even I'll admit I'm not the most attractive looking female. If you are a male, remember to stick close to any woman you consider your friend, as sometimes the men will back off if the girl is already "taken."


	4. ...You're my friend...

Chapter 4

*~*~*~*~*

Inuyasha opened his eyes to find the room grayed with the approach of dawn. Outside, the humans of this strange, massive stone city were starting to stir, loudly. He watched Kagome squirm in protest as a giant truck thingy went by on the street directly below them, banging, roaring and squealing passed the thin walled hotel. Silently, he smirked. At least he wasn't the only one not used to all this damned noise. Still, he wanted her to sleep. Kagome deserved to get some rest after what had happened last night. 

He had arrived on the balcony window with Kagome still asleep in his arms, and gone inside to find her father frantically pacing the small room, muttering something about "police" and "dirty street people." His reaction to seeing Inuyasha come in with Kagome in his arms had been one of pure elated relief, followed quickly by a look of panic when she didn't move or wake up. Inuyasha had glared at him to keep him quiet while he put her to rest on one of the tall futons in the room, and let her sleep. 

Mr. Higurashi and him had then gone out to the balcony to discuss what had happened. Naturally, the man hadn't been pleased. More angry and guilty than anything else, blaming himself for letting his daughter out of his sight in a city like this. Meanwhile, Inuyasha was having similar feelings, brought on when he found out Kagome had gone of to search for HIM and that she had KNOWN the stupid city was pretty dangerous at night. 

"Stupid bitch." He mumbled to the silent room, which was growing lighter by the minute. Kagome turned in her bed. 

"Inuyasha?" His gaze shot up from his lap to look at her. 

"Go to sleep." Was his grunted reply. 

"Why are you over there?" She ignored his command and looked down at him where he sat against the wall at the foot of her futon.

"Keh." was the first thing out of his mouth, "I always sleep like this stoo-pid." 

"But there's a bed right there." She lazily waved her arm at the extra cot room service had brought up. "It's yours, you can sleep in it."

"I know that." He snapped, then folded his arms over his chest. "I just don't want to!" he said haughtily, and Kagome giggled, making motions for him to keep it down. 

"Shhhh, my dad's still sleeping."

He clamped his mouth and eyes shut and leaned back against the wall. "Go back to sleep." he repeated. There was a soft thump on the mattress and the sound of blankets shifting as she lay back down. For a moment, Inuyasha thought that maybe she had actually listened to him, for once. Then she spoke.

"I'm sorry Inuyasha...."

He cautiously cracked an eye open to find her lying on her back, staring at the ceiling. He relaxed a little and pulled his knees up to rest his arms on. 

"What for?" He asked, forcing gruffness into his voice. She sighed.

"I shouldn't have yelled at you, and I shouldn't have said what I said. I didn't mean it."

What had she said? Inuyasha tried to remember. And what didn't she mean?

"I mean, " she searched for words that WOULDN'T offend the proud hanyou. "I know there's a lot of stuff you don't understand here, and I haven't been very nice in explaining any of it..." 

She sighed and sat up. "I'd like to start over again, you know, forget that yesterday ever happened and-"

"Forget that you lied to me er US!" He scowled suddenly and stood up. "Fuck Kagome, you must have packed enough in that case to last you a whole month, and you said you'd be back in three days! How long have you been planning this huh? What were you going to do? Just disappear on us and never come back?" there was a pause, "Well?"

Kagome looked down at the hands in her lap guiltily. "It was only going to be for two weeks. I thought I'd explain things after I got back." 

Inuyasha let out a snort.

"Really Inuyasha, it's not like you would have let me go even if I had told you. I have enough trouble just going to school, let alone travelling half way around the world!"

"HALF WAY AROUND THE WORLD!?!"

"SHHHHH!!!"

They froze for a moment and regarded the sleeping form of Mr. Higurashi who was still, luckily, sleeping. After a moment, Kagome got up from the bed, still wearing Inuyasha's coat over her torn shirt, and walked out to the balcony, Inuyasha trailing closely behind. 

The second the door was closed, Kagome covered his mouth with her hand to prevent him from saying anything and asked, "Inuyasha, will you let me explain?"

He scowled behind her hand but nodded once in agreement. She removed her hand. Inuyasha crossed his hands over his chest, then leaned down on the balcony railing. "Fine, but make it fast."

Kagome sighed. "Yes, Inuyasha, we are half way around the world, in a foreign country called Greece. I came here for two weeks to visit my father who I haven't seen in two years because he works so far away from home. I lied to you because I knew if I told you the truth you would say no and then we'd get into a big argument and I might never get here." 

"Damn straight!"

Kagome looked at him for a moment in disbelief before finding her voice and gasping out, "Inuyasha you are impossible!"

"What?"

"You...you...oh just never mind." She rested her head on the railing, letting the cool metal ward off the headache that was already starting to form. After a moment of silence, Inuyasha turned to her.

"Oi, Kagome?"

"Hmmm?"

"Exactly how far are we from, from, you know..." It still felt odd to him calling the damned place home, even if that's what it was. 

"Japan?" Kagome offered. Inuyasha nodded slowly, turning his gaze back to the stone buildings on the other side of the street. 

Kagome was silent a moment, trying to think of a way to explain to the demon exactly how far away they were. Finally, "Inuyasha, you see over there, where the sun is rising?" He turned his head in that direction. "Well, considering how far the group travels every day, if we were to keep heading in that direction we would reach Japan in um...well..."

There was a silence, in which Kagome seemed to contemplate the distance, a thoughtful finger over her sealed lips.

"Well?" Inuyasha was impatient. A couple of days, weeks, months? What? How hard could it be?

"Well, I heard in history class that it took one man... um...." She was suddenly quiet again.

"What?" Inuyasha all but yelled. She had that look on her face. The one that she got when she was about to say something she knew he wouldn't like. Another moment went by.

"Ahem....four years...." She whispered.

Inuyasha gaped at her. Four years! Four years walking...how? The world couldn't possibly be THAT big...could it? But it hadn't taken them four years to get here. Why was that? What the hell was going on here!!

"But don't worry," Kagome waved at him in a calming gesture, smiling re-assuredly. "it doesn't take that long anymore. In fact, it only takes a day now, if you travel by aeroplane that is." 

"A ru plai no?" He rolled the strange word around on his tongue, all the while thinking, 'No damned WONDER this fucking place seemed so strange!!' 

Meanwhile Kagome was explaining what an aeroplane was, "It's like this huge metal carriage with big metal wings, and engines that make it go sooo fast it takes off like vroooommm!!" She made a motion with her hand and Inuyasha looked at her as if she had lost it. Metal, flying? What bull was that. 

"Keh! Yeah right. How dumb do you think I am? Keh!"

Kagome made a face in frustration before suddenly scanning the sky and pointing, "There! See that long white cloud that's forming?"

Inuyasha scrunched up his face in confusion as he stared at the oddly growing cloud. After a minute, he realised that it wasn't a natural cloud, something was making it. When he looked closer, he saw what looked like a metal cross flying in the sky. "What the heck?" 

"See." Kagome gave a smug smile, "I told you so." 

Inuyasha just growled at her. Kagome ignored him, and he stopped growling as her face turned contemplative again for a moment. At length she said, "Say, Inuyasha?" 

"What?"

"I'll tell you what. When we get back, I promise I'll go shard hunting with you for two weeks straight-"

"You will?"

"Would you let me finish!!"

"Keh."

Sigh, "Like I said, for two weeks straight IF you promise me one thing." She stared at him, eyes boring into his as he cautiously nodded.

"You must promise me to completely FORGET about the Shikon jewel AND Naraku for the two weeks that we're here." 

"WHAT!!" 

"Shhhhh!!!" She pressed a finger to his mouth again as his voice echoed down the street. "We can't go home now because, ahh, the next plane to Japan isn't for two weeks. So we might as well have fun while we're here. That means NO Naraku and absolutely NO Shikon no Tama. Alright?"

Inuyasha was silent for a moment. They were stuck here for two weeks, on the other side of the world, no shards, no Naraku, nothing. What else was there to do? "Keh. Fine."

"YES!!" Kagome all but shrieked as she tucked her elbows in at her hips and began jumping up and down. "This is great! We're going to have so much fun! We'll get to go on a cruise and see the Islands and all the ancient sites.....we're in GREECE!! Hahaha!!"

She spun around a couple of times, jumping and laughing in glee, while Inuyasha could only stare. Last night she had been a sobbing mess, very close to getting herself raped, and today she was jumping and smiling like nothing bad had ever happened to her. Kagome never ceased to amaze him. It was like this while they travelled too. One minute she was inches from certain death, next minute she was yelling in the face of some pissed off demon without a care in the world....that and the fact that his coat and her shirt had come loose and he could see her bra through the gap as she jumped and spun were enough to make him gape. 

"Inuyasha?"

He snapped out of it just in time to see Kagome staring at him with a confused look on her face. Following his gaze, she glanced down and instantly turned red with embarrassment and....

"SIT!!" 

...anger. 

She left Inuyasha to peel his face off of the concrete balcony while Kagome when inside to get changed. It was the start of another glorious day. 

*~*~*~*~*

The next two weeks went by faster than anything Inuyasha had even known, and he finally understood why people always told him 'Time flies when you're having fun.' At the time, he'd thought the Bozou was just being perverted, but now he realised just how true it was. (The Bozou was still perverted though.) Inuyasha had never had more fun in his life.

That second day, they packed all their stuff back up again, and after a quick breakfast (which included all sorts of strange but good food) they were back in the car thingy again. This time however, Kagome sat with him in the back. Her cheerful chattering and her trust in this 'car' thing were enough to soothe Inuyasha's nerves to a point where he almost didn't notice that they were on a narrow strip of road with things whizzing past them at bone crunching speeds. It was actually relaxing, watching this strange countryside whizz past him. Kagome had a map, and she pointed out different cities, and mountains as they went by, explaining things he didn't understand like "telephone poles" and "Billu-boards." And for once, Inuyasha didn't have to lift a finger at all. It was great! 

After several hours of driving however, the novelty had started to wear off. Kagome's father had started telling them this long story about some stupid prince named Octopus who had been fated to kill his father and marry his mother. By the time he got to telling them about the octopus prince's grandchildren they were in driving through mountainous country, which was really stupid because instead of going in a strait line, they had to twist and curve to follow the road along the mountainside. After a time, Inuyasha got sick of it and decided to get out and run around, following the car as it drove. Mr.Higurashi seemed rather impressed by this, and they had even raced a bit against each other whenever Inuyasha pulled up even beside the car. Other times, the car was no where to be seen, as he ran up and stopped for a brief moment at the top of a mountain before continuing on his way. He always caught up though. 

Kagome meanwhile was sitting again in front passenger seat chatting away with her father about anything and everything she could tell him about the warring-states period and demons. He was fascinated, of course, which only made Kagome want to talk more, however, they also talked a bit about Souta, Mama and Grandpa, although Kagome had to admit she hadn't seen them all that often. 

They were right in the middle of a discussion about Kitsunes, and of course Shippo, when suddenly Inuyasha appeared, standing on the road before them, his bright red robes in sharp contrast to the grey and foggy day. Kagome had agreed that he could wear them for today, as they were going to be spending most of their time in isolated country. Besides, to be fair, she always wore her school clothes in the medieval period. Why couldn't he wear his here? 

Inuyasha seemed to want to talk about something, and looked rather put out about it. Arms crossed over his chest, he waited for Mr. Higurashi to pull up beside him and Kagome to unroll her window. 

"What is it, Inuyasha?" 

In reply, Inuyasha pointed a finger at the air to his side, and slowly moved it forward. There was a slight buzzing in the air, and suddenly, a crackle of energy appeared to singe Inuyasha's hand. He pulled it back quickly and looked back at Kagome peevishly. 

"Another barrier?!" She asked surprised, but then she realised why. They had been heading to a place called Delphi. Delphi had been a temple, and a very important one too, belonging to the oracle of Apollo. No doubt they had erected barriers around such a sacred place, barriers Inuyasha couldn't enter. Which meant that he would have to wait on the other side for them to finish their tour of the place and carry on their way. Inuyasha didn't mind, or at least he didn't seem to mind. He just "Keh"ed and leapt up a cliff to follow the perimeter of the barrier around to their next meeting place. Kagome sighed, and hoped he wasn't offended.

*~*~*~*~*

Delphi was amazing. First, the museum had housed some of the oldest statues Kagome had ever seen. There was a sphinx, a very rare bronze statue called the charioteer, and numerous belly-buttons of the earth. Apparently, once upon a time people had believed Delphi to be the centre of the world. On that note, they had all unanimously decided that the world had an "outy" at it's naval, and set to work. 

Next Kagome and her father ascended the sacred path to the temple, passing many ruins and covered sites where people seemed to be excavating. Her father explained that this had once been the city of Delphi, and was still being excavated by archaeologists. Further up, they passed re-constructed treasuries, where people had once left their offerings, and then the Polygon Wall. Made without cement or mortar of any kind, this wall had survived a millennia of earthquakes and wars, and had not once collapsed. Also, written upon the wall were the names of 800 slaves, who had been freed by their masters for their good service. It was amazing. 

Finally they came to the temple of Apollo itself, where young maidens had once leaned over the sulphuric fumes coming from the earth, and then predicted people's futures once they were fairly, ahem, hi. Of course, this was entirely the scientific theory, and somehow, Kagome realised there must have been something more magical to it than that. 

Walking up to the small stadium and amphitheatre, Kagome's eye caught a speck of red. There, perched upon the surrounding cliffs like some lone ancient guard, was Inuyasha. He was intently watching the scenes below, ears twitching to catch everything that was said by Mr. Higurashi. Inside, Kagome found herself suffocating a quell of anger and indignation. Why should Inuyasha be the only one left out? What had he ever done to stupid Apollo? 

Kagome sighed. There was nothing she could do about it now. Instead, she slapped a happy smile on her face and gave Inuyasha a cheery wave from where she stood. He saw her, looked surprised for a moment, and then went into the pose that always accompanied the word "Keh!" Kagome suppressed a giggle and then hurried on before she attracted too much attention from other tourists. 

*~*~*~*~*

As promised, Iiuyasha was waiting for them when they exited the barrier and continued on towards a small restaurant and a late lunch. The food was great, and both Inuyasha and Kagome were pleasantly surprised at their explorations of Greek Moussaka (sort of an eggplant and tomato lasagne without the noodles), and mutton (lamb). However, the waiter kept looking at Inuyasha strangely, and by the end of the meal, even Kagome was starting to get slightly annoyed at him. Alright, Inuyasha was different, and everyone was entitled to a good minute or so of staring, but after that, it was just rude. Even Mr. Higurashi thought so, and decided to make a point to him by skimping on the tip. 

After the meal, they were in for a long winding decent from the mountains, down to the Mediterranean, and along the shores of gulf of Corinth. Inuyasha decided to go for a run again, and this time, Kagome asked to go with him on his back. They talked while they went, flying over cliffs and boulders in effortless leaps and bounds. Without the added weight of Kagome's backpack, she felt as if they were flying. Kagome didn't miss the opportunity to let out a few whoops and trills of excitement as they went, that is until Inuyasha told her to stop screaming in his ears. However, even he seemed to be smiling as they ran. The clouds had cleared up, the sun was out, and a good breeze was blowing off the perfect turquoise blue of the gulf. Kagome had never felt so high. 

*~*~*~*~*

Hours later, a car containing a middle aged man, a sleeping girl, and a snoring hanyou, all from Japan, came to a stop, parked in the hold of a large ferry between mainland Greece and the smaller peninsula of Peleponesse. Shinji smirked as he held up the camera and aimed it at the sleeping pair. It was almost too cute for words. Kagome's cheek was resting on the demon's shoulder, and his head was in turn slumped lightly in her direction... 

He snapped the camera and instantly the car was filled with the white light of the flash. Inuyasha snapped awake, sitting bolt upright with a confused and panicked expression on his face. This was no forest, where was his tree? How had he fallen asleep? Where was Kagome? 

Kagome, in the mean time, just ignored the flash and continued to slumber, falling down and over behind Inuyasha's back as he moved. It was too comical and Shinji snapped another photo, which abruptly brought the hanyou to his senses again, and his memory back with them. He growled in annoyance as Shinji chuckled and announced brightly. "Rise and shine. Wouldn't want you to miss the ferry ride now!"

"Uwhaa?" Kagome was now awake and sitting up, bleary eyed and bushy headed. She looked over and immediately blushed a light pink colour as she realised how she had been sleeping, before spotting the camera in her father's hand and redoubling her efforts. "DAD!!" She hissed, now a medium reddish hue. Inuyasha, also pink, was wondering why Kagome was so worried about a small black box, when the car gave an unexpected lurch, signalling the launch of the boat. 

Immediately Kagome forgot everything else and flew out of the car, dragging Inuyasha with her as she climbed the narrow stairways to the very top of the four story fairy and looked out over the harbour, which was quickly getting smaller with every passing minute as the opposite bank got larger. The sky was grey again, and spit was falling from the dark clouds that had rolled in. 

The top of the deck was wet and slick with water and grease, but Kagome didn't notice this. Not until her feet accidentally slipped out from under her and rose into the air. Her back automatically arched in surprise as she fell backwards in one of those infamous clumsy ice skater falls, in which the victim ends up with a bruised tail bone and a compacted spine. She was saved, however, when Inuyasha caught her from behind by wrapping his arms around her torso and waiting until she gained her balance. Unfortunately, Mr. Higurashi chose this time to come up the stairs as well, armed with a camera, and earned himself another blackmail photo of Kagome and Inuyasha. Kagome wanted to die from embarrassment, but instead settled for keeping at least three feet between her and Inuyasha for the rest of the boat ride, just to be safe. 

*~*~*~*~*

They reached their hotel not a half hour later, as it was situated about a mile or so down shore from the ferry stop. Unlike the last hotel in Athens, this one was perfect. Large and spacious, it came complete with a balcony and a view of the gulf and beach not a hundred feet away. Kagome started bouncing she was so happy, and Inuyasha rolled his eyes at her, but didn't complain about the room. 

They spent the next three nights at that hotel, either lazing on the beach or exploring the local area. Kagome insisted on doing some souvenir shopping for her family and friends back home, and indeed there seemed to be a lot of shops set up for that exact purpose. Inuyasha didn't like them. In fact he hated them with a passion the moment he followed Kagome into one and saw some sort of booklet boasting "sex positions of ancient Greece." Then there were some very eechi so-called "lust demon" statues, depicting horned men with very large male parts all standing at attention. It was a gross, disgusting and degrading to a level even the bozou had yet to approach. Luckily, Inuyasha hadn't been the only one who thought so. Both he and Kagome had turned several shades of red before leaving the store, listening to Mr. Higurashi calmly explain how Greeks believed in perfection of the human anatomy and were much less squeamish about such things, and so on and so forth. Inuyasha didn't care, _that_ was just wrong!!

*~*~*~*~*

The next day, they were all packed and back in the car again, heading out for a place called "Olympia." Inuyasha had to admit it sounded interesting. Games to prove strength, even if was only human strength, as an alternative to war. Apparently, nations that were at war could not enter champions into these games, which was some high honour, and thus, all wars were stopped whenever the Olympics approached. Champions trained in events like running, wrestling, spear throwing and so on, and the winner from every event was allowed to step into the house of the king of gods and receive his blessings. 

Although Inuyasha would never admit it, he was interested, and more earnest to see this place than he'd been to do anything (other than look for shards or kill Naraku) for a long time. Maybe even a little too earnest, otherwise, he would have noticed the warnings in the air around him before walking head first into the strongest barrier he had yet seen. The shock was so great it threw him back a hundred feet, over the parking lot they had left the car in, and painfully into the side of a small cliff at the other end. 

Wincing, he gave his head a shake, cursing his own stupidity as Kagome came running up with concern on her face. He snarled at her as he assured her he was fine, and didn't need her to worry about him. Then, abruptly told her he didn't even want to see the F*cking "Olympics" in the first place so she could just go in without him again and he'd wait here. Mr. Higurashi bought it, or at least enough of it, and gave Inuyasha a slow, almost doubtful nod before turning back to the site. 

Kagome however, wasn't so easy to fool. Anger with Inuyasha usually meant he was feeling something else and just didn't know how to show it. (and still look all tough and invincible) The fact that he had walked straight into the barrier in the first place, instead of detecting it, was enough to tell her that he had actually been looking forward to seeing Olympia, and that this anger was just a facade to cover up his disappointment. Once again, Inuyasha had been singled out because of something he couldn't help, and the more Kagome thought about it, the angrier she got.

"Come on!" She nearly shouted. Grabbing Inuyasha by the wrist, she spun around on her heel and all but dragged him back towards the barrier. Inuyasha was too shocked to protest, especially when Kagome began to mutter

"Stupid Gods! ....What's he ever done to them? ... Not his fault he's half demon."

Damn, if he didn't stop soon, he was going to get fried again. He put on his best angry voice, "Kagome, I said it's fine, I..." 

"It's not FINE!!" She seethed. "You're my friend Inuyasha! Nobody treats my friends like that and gets away with it!"

That stopped him. Friend? Kagome thought of him as her friend? Not only that, she was willing to fight for him?...Against GODS?! "Wait! Kagome! Damn it..."

  
It was too late. One more step and the air around them became bright with energy. Inuyasha squinted, unable to see as Kagome's own aura snapped spasmodically with the energy of the barrier. He felt his skin start to burn as she pushed her way forward, determined against all reason to get him through. 

And then, suddenly, it was gone. The burning faded to a slight tingling warmth where their hands were joined, and the air cleared. Kagome had done it! Inuyasha was inside the barrier. Even he couldn't suppress a rather admiring smirk as Kagome flashed him her own triumphant grin. Then, ignoring the rather befuddled stares of the other tourists, and the amazed one of Kagome's father, they continued on down the trail. The tingling in their hands telling them that as long as he was with Kagome, the gods would accept to have a half demon in their midst. 

*~*~*~*~*

When I visited Greece, it was march, and WAY too cold to go swimming. However, the summer, as I understand it, is WAY too hot to do anything accept swim, and everything is so dry, it's almost arid. So, the time of year that this story takes place in is undecided. Probably a mix of both times of year, or maybe the fall, but I can't be sure. 

Yes, the lust demons are real, I saw a WHOLE bunch of them, everywhere I went. Further on, I'm going to have Kagome and Inuyasha get chased by a woman selling fertility charms (just like I and my friends were) and then maybe have Inuyasha pass out on a trip to the Athens fish market, I'm not sure yet. :-P 


	5. ...Fish Markets and Bellydancers!

Chapter 5

*~*~*~*~*

The days continued to fly by, events and places each flashes in a lifetime, yet as memorable as any year. There was the giant theatre that could seat an army, yet was built so well that you could hear coins being dropped on stage while sitting in the very back. Then there was the really, really old castle, which, as Mr. Higurashi informed him, was already 2000 years old in Inuyasha's time, and was now 2500 years ancient. Not that it didn't look it's age. In fact, with the exception of the lion arch and the tombs, it looked like a pile of field stones and nothing more, but it was interesting none the less. The "Corinth Canal" was really amazing too. 4 miles, and cut almost 100 feet into solid rock in some places. Inuyasha couldn't even fathom how they'd pulled that off. Hell, he couldn't fathom the damned boats that were going through it! They had whole "swimming pools" on them, and looked bigger than most palaces Inuyasha had seen. It made his head spin.

It had been while they were watching the boats go through that yet another pathetic old woman had approached them, trying to sell something. Mr. Higurashi had gone off to use the bathrooms, and he and Kagome had been just sitting there ogling the big "cruise ship" as Kagome called it, when she had wandered up. 

"What do you want, baba." was Inuyasha's courteous greeting. For a moment, the old lady had looked confused, and then said something in a weird language Inuyasha couldn't understand. Kagome must have, however, because she stepped up in front of him and shook her head no. The old lady however, kept insisting, making gestures and pointing between Kagome and himself until Kagome suddenly turned an interesting shade of red, shouted something rather loudly, and turned her back on the old hag. Inuyasha looked at her funny.

"Another shawl Baba?" he'd asked, curious as to why her face was red. After a moment, Kagome shook her head. No, she wasn't selling shawls. "Then what was she selling?" Kagome muttered something so quiet and slurred even Inuyasha couldn't make it out. "What?" 

She reddened a little more before saying quietly, "...fertility charm... ... ...for us..."

"Oh." Inuyasha's face was instantly a colour to match her own. They didn't mention anything to Mr. Higurashi as they silently climbed into the car. They were driving faster now, following wider roads with more cars, so Inuyasha couldn't get out and run, but it wasn't so bad. The windows were open, and Inuyasha occasionally stuck his head out as they passed even more orange and olive groves. However, slowly but surely, Inuyasha noticed the air become thick and oily again, tainted slightly with sea salt and a large number of people. Sure enough, they were heading back into the "city." Inuyasha scowled. It seemed like they had just left, and now they were back already! Surely two weeks hadn't passed that fast!

Kagome must have been thinking the same thing, because she pouted in her seat and said, "Two weeks isn't long enough! We have to leave in three days, and it feels like we just got here!" 

Mr. Higurashi chuckled and then reminded her, "Well, we still have the cruise tomorrow, and then another whole day in Athens. It's not over yet."

Sigh, "I know, I just wish it didn't have to end at all."

Inuyasha couldn't have agreed more. 

*~*~*~*~*

They stayed in the hotel they had passed their first night in, only this time, instead of having a street to look out over, they had a solid brick wall. Oh, and Inuyasha actually slept in a bed this time. He'd actually gotten used to them over the last week, as well as the strange clothes and bathrooms. Even the city wasn't as much of a shock now as it had been the first time, and it was cleaner as well. Inuyasha had instantly noticed the slimy piles of trash were no longer visible lining the streets. According to Shinji, it was because the "garbage strike" had ended a few days ago. Inuyasha was puzzled as to how the hell garbage would attack (strike) a city, but shrugged it off. It was over, nothing to worry about, and he could beat up some old smelly garbage monster any day. 

*~*~*~*~*

The next day Kagome and him were both roused from peaceful slumber (in separate beds) by Mr. Higurashi, bright and early. An hour later they were dressed and ready, waiting on board a small, 1 day cruise ship for a tour of the nearby islands. It was a rather cold and rainy day, probably not the best for a cruise, but Kagome ignored it and insisted on being her usual bright and cheery self. Inuyasha, on the other hand, didn't care about weather. He was so tough it never effected him anyway, so who cares. With the highest of spirits, they set out, ready to go wherever their cruise ship took them. 

The first island had been a quaint little place, situated on a sharp slope leading down from a high hill with a light house. The roads were small and narrow, lined with flowers and weaving drunkenly upwards to the summit. The lighthouse itself was in disrepair, but the view was certainly scenic. 

Ten minuets later they were on the ship again, heading out to sea. Beside them, the coast was rugged and completely isolated, save for the occasional lonely house, or tiny village. There weren't many trees, but instead endless fields of yellow and purple flowers shaped like a thick draped cloth, folded out before them. Briefly Inuyasha wondered what it would be like to live there, in quiet solitude, not a demon or shard or care in the world, just him and Kagome...

*~*~*~*~*

Kagome watched as a lazy smile spread across Inuyasha's face, and mirrored it on her own. It was amazing what these last two weeks had done for the half demon. True to his word, neither of them had once mentioned shards or demons or Naraku for the whole trip, and the break from the constant tension seemed to be changing him. Kagome noticed, while he was still temperamental, Inuyasha tended to be less angry and more indifferent, and maybe even sometimes happy. She had seen Inuyasha smile more on this trip then in all the time she had previously known him combined. 

Like now, he was smiling, just to himself, a faraway look in his eyes as he leaned over the cold metal railing beside her, and stared at the passing shore. The breeze played carelessly with his long silver/white hair, and his fuzzy ears twitched in the wind. A relaxed face, handsome and peaceful, smiled secretively outward, adding a hint of mystery, and then his eyes, shining tender and warm, something she rarely got to see in them. Kagome suddenly suppressed an urge to shift over along the rail and wrap her arms around him, sink into an embrace...

She shivered in the wind and hugged the railing instead. Leaning over just a bit farther, she stared down at the water as it splashed in their wake. 

*~*~*~*~*

The next island was famous for all sorts of rich people going there. It was also, blessedly quiet as there were no cars or automobiles allowed on the island, unless they were used for service. The three of them spent an hour there, wandering the streets and climbing up to see the windmills and monuments to naval officers of the past. They shopped and talked, just relaxing and taking it easy until it was time to go. Once they were back on the boat they ate lunch in the hold and talked some more. Inuyasha decided to stalk up on his favorite, chicken Souvlaki, before going back to Japan. Kagome had a gyro, and all three of them shared a plate of baclava, although Inuyasha was sure he could have eaten three all by himself. 

A while later, Inuyasha left to go outside and stare at the scenery again. Kagome said it was too cold outside, and instead stayed inside and talked with her father some more. Crazy woman, always talking, never got tired of blabber. He smirked at the though. He was interrupted, however, by voices. Normally, he wouldn't have cared, but these were voices he could understand, meaning they were from Japan. Cautiously, he peeked around the corner and saw that there were indeed Japanese people there, sitting huddled in a group against the sharp wind. 

Oddly enough, it was comforting listening to them talk. Not that Inuyasha ever eaves dropped on anything if he could help it (sometimes he couldn't help it) but somehow, just being able to recognise the speech of strangers was comforting. It reminded him of home, made it seem closer. After all, if they could get here too, it couldn't be impossible to get back. He smiled, maybe going back home wouldn't be so terrible after all, only this time, he'd appreciated the place a lot more.

A little while later, Inuyasha walked back inside to find Kagome asleep in a corner, using a thin coat to prop her head up against the glass. Inuyasha quickly pulled his own sweater off and gently slipped it between the glass and the coat, watching her breath in and out, puffs of air coming out her nose and slightly disturbing the hair on her chest...

"Inuyasha." 

He spun around quickly, as if he'd been caught doing something wrong, only to be faced with Mr. Higurashi.

*~*~*~*~* 

He was going to do it. He'd seen the way Inuyasha had been looking at his daughter, and had no doubt about what the young man had been thinking. He had seen too, that they were rather close, and although Mr. Higurashi didn't have any objections to Inuyasha "courting" Kagome, he nonetheless, wanted to make sure that the hanyou realised Kagome was still too young for some things, in this time. Back in the Warring States Period, it was common for girls Kagome's age to be already married, but not here, and he wanted to make that clear to him...

However, when Inuyasha had spun around so suddenly, like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, Shinji lost his nerve (and almost laughed). Kagome wasn't a stupid girl, she knew she was too young, and Inuyasha was already so jumpy around her anyway. One word from Kagome would be more than enough to stop any advances on her. In fact, the way they were acting, this relationship seemed almost like a best friendship, instead a romance affair, which was exactly the type of thing he wanted for Kagome anyway. Lust, passion, cheap words, they never lasted long, but friends, friendship was forever. His own relationship would never have lasted as long if he and his wife hadn't been best friends first...Maybe...maybe he should just say nothing, and let things run their natural course. Yes, perhaps that would be best. 

So, instead he said, "They've got great slushies at the bar, want to try one?"

*~*~*~*~*

On the third island, they went on a two hour bus tour to see yet another ancient temple in ruins. Inuyasha thought it was getting rather tiresome, looking at old marble and columns all the time. However, it meant Inuyasha got to hold Kagome's hand again, so he didn't complain. Later on, they ate something called "Pistachio ice-cream" which was almost as good as the slushy things he tried earlier, and then to another, more modern temple, that apparently had some dead saint that walked around at night, because the old ladies kept on having to make new slippers for him all the time. It was a bunch of crock, Inuyasha would have smelt it if a dead guy had been walking around.

Hours later, they were approaching the city again, and even in the fading light Inuyasha could see the oily air hanging above it like a poisonous cloud. However, the lights looked pretty, and he and Kagome watched as they approached. There was only one set of stars this time, the sky was still cloudy, but still, they could be stars...all those lights... Kagome fell asleep in the car against Inuyasha again, and instead of waking her up, he carried her upstairs to the room behind Mr. Higurashi. For the second time that trip, he lay her down on the bed and tucked her in, but this time, he was smiling softly as he did it. 

*~*~*~*~*

The next day was their last day in Athens, and Kagome was determined to make it last as LONG as possible. So, she woke everyone up at six, and made them rush about until they were ready, threatening sits and crying fits to anyone who dared cross her. Seven O'clock found them stopped at a bakery, buying a quick breakfast on the run, and soon, they were trudging up some monster hill to see yet another small temple that perched on upon it. Then they stayed at the top, mostly catching their breath for twenty minutes and taking in the view of the city, before heading back down to see the Museum of Athens. The museum was boring, or so Inuyasha thought, and it was also rather perverted. People stood staring at other people who had been turned to stone and weren't wearing any clothes. Inuyasha was glad to be out of there. 

Somewhere between 11 and noon, the trio could be seen passing run down buildings and stores on their way to the Plaka district to eat lunch. Kagome was in the lead, charging ahead, ready to step on anything that got in her way. Mr. Higurashi was next, being more adept at weaving through large crowds, and finally, Inuyasha, who was lagging further and further behind. 

Not that he was tired mind you. No, in fact, out of the tree of them, he had probably suffered least from all the walking they had done thus far. However, the smell was getting to him, and it seemed the more they walked, the stronger it became, and the harder it was to breathe. It was a surprisingly strong smell, made mostly of rotting fish bile and guts, but also laced with a very potent smell of too many people being jammed into one too small place, and stray animals. Still, Inuyasha could handle it. It was just some stupid smell after all, and would soon be passed. Any second now... Any second... any...second... 

Suddenly the world veered sharply to the right. And it was all Inuyasha could do to protect himself as the side of the building came out and smacked him in the side of the head. He wasn't so lucky with the ground however. It landed a hard blow to the back of his skull, and soon, Inuyasha was seeing stars, and then nothing. 

*~*~*~*~*

"Eewww! It reeks in here!! What is this place Papa?" Kagome wrinkled her nose and breathed through the neckline of her shirt. Before her in a rather wide ally large enough to fit a warehouse, people were jamming together like sardines in a can, and the whole place seemed reek to high heaven. It was so repulsing Kagome would have lost her lunch, had she had any yet. 

"That's the Athens fish market, wouldn't buy anything from there though." Kagome nodded and began to look around for the third member of their party. When he didn't materialise out of the crowd a few seconds later, Kagome began to wonder what was taking him so long. She wanted to move and soon, because the smell was making her dizzy...

Of course! She gave her forehead a smack with the heel of her hand before tearing off back along the sidewalk. Sure enough, not fifty feet away there was a small crowd gathering, and after a quickly tearing the other spectators out of her way, she realised why. Inuyasha was lying on his side, bunched up parallel against a wall, obviously out cold. Not only that, the people in the back were pushing the people in the front forward, causing the whole mob to almost trample the unconscious boy, and, probably more severe of the two, making it even more difficult for everyone to breathe, especially Inuyasha. 

Kagome gave up trying to be polite not a half second later and began using her slim frame to body check people out of the way. Even so, it still took her at least half a minute to reach Inuyasha. Having accomplished that, she knelt down beside him and, pulling her handkerchief out of her pocket, pressed it over his nose and mouth, hoping to filter out at least some of that reeking smell. Behind her, her father was busily speaking in Greek, tying to get the crowd moving again and finally giving them some space to breathe. However, Kagome realised, the best thing for Inuyasha right now would be to get him out of here all together. Only then would he be able to breathe freely and clear his nose.

So, pulling one arm around and over her shoulders, she yanked him to his feet and began to drag him away. Mr. Higurashi was soon beside her, supporting the other half of Inuyasha's weight and together, they managed to half carry half drag him almost two blocks away, before collapsing on a bench to catch their breath, and think of a more suitable plan. They couldn't very well drag Inuyasha all the way back to the hotel. Finally, it was decided that Kagome would stay there with Inuyasha while Shinji went and got the car. 

It was possibly the longest half hour of Kagome's life. Waiting there, in the baking sun, the lingering smell of rotting fish carried strongly upon every breath or puff of air, which were few. It couldn't have been great for Inuyasha either, she thought, so she was very glad when her father's car suddenly materialised out of passing traffic. Fifteen minutes later, they were back in the nice air conditioned hotel. They lay Inuyasha down on his bed, and Kagome got a cloth to wipe his brow with, all the while telling her father about Inuaysha's sensitive nose, and how he couldn't stand smells that were too strong and how she should have realised that this would happen. 

Quite some time later, Kagome's stomach began to growl again. Now that the repulsive smell of fish was out of the air, it wanted to eat food, and fast. Mr. Higurashi chuckled slightly as he told his daughter he would go out for some food and come back soon. Kagome contented herself to lie down on the bed beside Inuyasha's and doze, occasionally getting up to re-fold the moist cloth so it stayed cool, and waiting for Inuyasha to wake up, at least until she fell asleep. 

*~*~*~*~*

Inuyasha came back to the world to find himself in a soothingly cool room with very little light to further aggravate the pounding in his head. His memory was soon up to par, and he realised that Kagome and her father had somehow brought him back to the hotel...but where were they?

A slight swish of air alerted him to the presence of someone sleeping beside him. The room was small, and so cramped that the two beds had been pushed against each other to make just barely enough room for the third. So, as it was he turned on his side and almost rolled right over Kagome who slept not an arms length away. Stupid girl must have fallen asleep waiting for him to wake up, which didn't surprise him. She'd been going like a madman almost since daybreak, no wonder she was tired. 

She was also, Inuyasha thought (not for the first time) extremely cute. Lying there, without a care in the world, hair mussed, innocent face lax with peace, lips caught in just the slightest bit of a pout, her soft cheeks, flushed slightly pink...

Her pout deepened, and then it was broken by a yawn as she rolled and stretched, opening her bright eyes, shimmering with a mix of curiosity and confusion. She looked at him, and for a moment he was basked in her innocence, locked in a gaze that seemed to see through every wall he'd ever made, and every lie he'd ever told. The next instant he was staring at the wall, very conscious of the heat radiating from his cheeks. He'd almost been caught staring at her.

"Mn, you're awake." Kagome sat up and stretched some more. Inuyasha just nodded dumbly, moments passed.

"Are you feeling better now?" That made him blush. F*cking weak idiot collapsing in the middle of the street. He mentally cursed his demon side for a change, feeling ashamed. Oh, how great and mighty he must have looked being carried down the road by a teenage girl and a middle aged man. Pathetic, but then so was feeling sorry for yourself. Instantly he got a grip and grumbled that he was fine, adding in a "keh" just for good measure.

Kagome ignored the grumble and got up of the bed. "That's good" she said with a slight smile. Inuyasha watched her walk to the window and look out at the cement wall before them. Through the small portion that wasn't wall, Inuysha could see the shadows lengthening as mid afternoon approached. 

Mid-afternoon! But this was their last day here, and it was wasting away while they sat stuck in a hotel room. 

"Where's your pop?" He asked suddenly. Kagome wouldn't go anywhere without her father, so if they were going to leave, they'd need him too. 

"Mn, he went out to get some food. Should be back any minute now."

There was a listless, almost flat tone in her voice that put Inuyasha on alert. Was something wrong? Well duh, but what was it? Inuyasha got up and joined her by the window. Staring out, he tried to think of some way to strike up a conversation, without looking like he was trying to get her to talk. This is what he came up with. 

"Damn, fucking fish smell. If it wasn't for that we wouldn't have wasted half the bloody day."

Kagome made a noise beside him that sounded like a cross between a sigh, a contemplative hum, and a slight groan. Inuyasha looked down at her to see that she probably hadn't heard a word he said. Her eyes were as far away from him as the fluffy white clouds dotting the perfect blue sky, and they were beautiful. Slowly, as if something else was controlling his body, he shifted slightly to the side, until Kagome's back was brushing gently against his chest. Then, his arms went out, and before he rightly realised what they were doing, they had scooped Kagome's hands away from the glass, and brought them back against her chest as he encircled her in a comforting hug. 

Kagome leaned back against him automatically before she too realised what was going on and stiffened at the same moment as Inuyasha. However, neither of them moved, and neither said a word. Finally, Kagome shifted around so that she could face Inuyasha's chest. Inuyasha, thinking she wanted to go, loosened his already non existent grip on her to let her do so, only to be wholly surprised when her own arms came up, encircling his back, and resting there, feather light, but firm. Inuyasha's heart suddenly felt very, very full. He renewed his grip on her, pulling her closer, bringing his head down to rest beside hers...

They stayed like that for a long time, until...

"Hey, Kagome, is Inuyasha up? I brought you some... ..." 

Inuyasha instantly straightened as Kagome shot her hear around Inuyasha to peer directly into her father's face. It was eerily blank with surprise. Inuyasha saw him to, and instantly they were on opposite sides of the room, each looking very, very red. 

Mr. Higurashi, who would have laughed if it had been any other girl in the young man's arms, just stared. After a moment, however, he re-gained the use of his tongue and brightly said, "Anybody in the mood for Gyros?" 

*~*~*~*~*

5:00 came and found the trio all back to a healthy shade of skin tone and driving along a busy highway headed south to the temple of Poseidon at cape Sounion. The memories of that place were to be etched deeply into Inuyasha's mind for as long as he lived. Not because of the temple, no. It was just another collection of white marble columns standing on a rather large peninsula. 

No, whenever he thought of that place from then on, he thought of Kagome. Kagome sitting beside him on a small cliff edge, staring out at the sparkling greeny-blue horizon. Kagome, jogging through a field of strange, exotic flowers, blowing in rhythm to the shimmer of her hair. Kagome, silhouetted against the setting sun, with ocean waves crashing at her feet...

Inuyasha didn't need to wonder what heaven looked like after that. He knew. He'd been there.

*~*~*~*~*

Night had fallen by the time they reached the city again. However, instead of returning to hotel room like Inuyasha thought, they drove back to the "Plaakaa" place and parked on a little side street, before getting out of the car and walking. Inuyasha wasn't the only one surprised by this. Kagome soon asked Shinji where they were going, as a small crowd began to build, heading in the same direction as they were. Shinji just smiled. 

Finally, they came to a small, insignificant door that was being guarded by a man in the strangest outfit Inuyasha had ever seen. He was wearing a white blouse with long wide sleeves. Over that, he wore a rather tight embroidered dark vest, and below that, his pants were black, baggy and puffy, but way too short so that they ended just below his knees. The rest of his legs were covered by some skin tight white material, and on his feet were the ugliest shoes Inuyasha had ever seen. They had giant pom-poms, and curled up at the toes, and to top off the entire outfit, the man also had a hat.

If it wasn't for everyone else acting like that outfit was the most natural thing on the world, Inuyasha would have been on the ground suffocating in his own laughter. As it was, Inuyasha couldn't help a mirthful smile, which must have been misinterpreted as a friendly one, because the freak guarding the door turned to him and said in near perfect Japanese "Hello, and welcome to our Greek Cultural Evening."

Inside, loud, strange music was playing over the chatter of many voices in many different languages. Inuyasha looked over to see Kagome ogling everything giddily as they took their seats before the stage. After waiting a while, food appeared, and then, halfway through their meal, people appeared on stage and began introductions. At first, Inuyasha had no clue what was being said, and he wondered why Kagome's father wasn't translating everything like always for them. Then, the man with the black wand thing began speaking in Japanese. 

"Hello, and welcome to the show. We hope that you have enjoyed the evening so far, and assure you that it will only get better as the night progresses. We have much in store for you tonight..." and so on and so forth. This was some type of dinner and show, where they did all sorts of things native to this place. Inuyasha was intrigued, some of it, like this "belly dancing" sounded very interesting indeed. Inuyasha quickly finished his food and sat back to watch...

As it turns out, interesting was NOT the word Inuyasha would have used to describe that particular dance. After watching a group of other young men and woman jump around on stage in time to some annoying music, the lights died down and a woman appeared. Inuyasha gawked. She was wearing clothes that exposed more of her body than Kagome's bathing suit thing. Her pants were all but see through, her breasts were covered but the rest of her chest was rather exposed, as were her arms and the whole length of her torso, including her stomach. It didn't take long for Inuyasha to figure out why, for suddenly, the woman began dancing and swaying provocatively to the music, while the muscles of her abdomen seemed to writhe with a life of their own. Inuyasha thought it was disgusting...and then a sudden image of Kagome, doing the exact same thing flashed unbidden in his mind.

He felt a tickle in his nose and quickly looked away, sniffling heavily as he tried to stop the spin of other images entering his mind now. He was more or less relieved when it was all over.

Dessert came, more of that ice-cream stuff he had liked, and with it, the young men and women returned to the stage, this time wearing different but equally laughable outfits. They danced for a bit more, some of it was alright, but it got boring to watch after a while. It was around then that they began to call volunteers from the audience, up to the stage to perform different tasks and play different games either with or against the dancers on stage.

For one of these so called games Kagome was chosen as a volunteer to go up on stage and do whatever new task they had come up with that time. They called quite a few people up, and the dancers quickly made a circle out of them on stage. Then they taught them a dance, to some quick music that soon had them spinning around and weaving about, finally stopping once again in a circle. 

Then, it turned sour...

One of the older dancers, with a chocolate brown moustache and beard, pulled one of the male volunteers into the centre of the circle, and had him wait there. Then he chose a female, also from the circle, and whispered something in her ear. The girl blushed heavily, before swallowing something (which Inuyasha could only have guessed was her pride) and kissed the ugly male volunteer on the cheek. The room erupted with a loud round of whoops and cat-calls and cheers from the audience, and the two volunteers got to sit down. 

By this time, Inuyasha was wishing that they would just stop and let Kagome come back to the table. No such luck. The cycle continued: dance, stop, and victims were chosen to kiss...and Inuyasha became more and more apprehensive as the number of volunteers slowly dwindled. Too quickly, only Kagome and some other pale faced man were left. Inuyasha held his breath as the man in the beard gave Kagome her instructions... 

"You ready...now, you must kiss him, on the lips..." Inuyasha's sensitive hearing was over run as angry blood began to pound through his ears at those words. He watched as Kagome hesitated, only to be urged on by the riotous voices of the audience. Slowly, nervously, she took a step forwards. In that moment, Kagome was beautiful, timidly shy, blushing all over...

The next thing Inuyasha knew, he was under the bright lights of the stage facing Kagome, blocking her from her target. A sudden hushed silence fell over the crowd...

Inuyasha shot the bearded man a death glare and grabbed Kagome's hand, yanking her gently towards the edge of the platform. Kagome however, had her eyes wide open in shock and was being rather unresponsive. 

"Come on Kagome, let's go." He growled. The audience had come back to life again, and they weren't happy about loosing their show. Kagome broke out of her trance to stare at them somewhat taken aback, and then the bearded man spoke...

"Ah, I am sorry. I did not know that she was already taken. Perhaps, you would kiss her instead, ne?" He then repeated what he had said out loud to the spectators in several languages, until the while room was one big encouraging cheer.

The cheer, however, turned sour when Inuyasha once again began dragging Kagome off the stage by her wrist. He was not some form of entertainment for these ass holes, and neither was Kagome. He was almost to the edge of the platform when he heard it, laughter. 

Some piggy man in the front row was pointing at them, his face red as snickers of accusing mirth rolled off his tongue. He said something to his friends, and they laughed too. But Inuyasha couldn't understand them...

"They say you cannot be a man, if you are too embarrassed to kiss such a pretty girl." 

Inuyasha whirled around to glare at the bearded man once again, who only shrugged as if to say, "hey, don't shoot the messenger." Another roll of laughter started again, and Inuyasha's indignant pride flared out into rage. How dare they! Him, Inuyasha, not a man?! A growl rose out of his throat as he glanced quickly at where Kagome stood by his side. He'd show them. 

Kagome wasn't looking, her attention was focused on the crowd. Taking the element of surprise, he shot one hand around to the small of her back, and the other deep into her hair at the nape of her neck. He stepped forward in one smooth motion, tipping Kagome off balance and forcing her to fall back into the waiting cradle of his arms....

...and then his lips were on hers. 

The world flashed against his closed eyelids as a jolt of sweet sensation leapt from his lips to his spine and stayed there. He was doing it, kissing Kagome, tasting her candy pink lips, holding her body against his own.

Two seconds later, some obscure part of his brain pulled his body upright and set an absolutely stunned Kagome back on her feet. She looked at him in a complete daze as the surrounding audience roared in approval. She looked so good like that.

Smirking and beaming triumph, and a little something else, he swept the catatonic Kagome off her feet and carried her bridal style back to the table. (So that she couldn't sit him) Once there, he set Kagome down gently in her chair before re-seating himself and taking up his familiar "I'm too cool for this" posture.

...He avoided making eye contact with Kagome's father for the rest of the evening.

*~*~*~*~*

Notes:

Yup, this all happened too...well sorta. There was a belly dancer, and the kissing game and stuff all happened, and cape Sounion is very, VERY pretty! There was a fertility charm seller at the Corinth canal, and the Athen's fish market is very VERY smelly, even in the colder month of March. I don't want to think about how bad it smells in the hotter months of the year. 

I was also going to mention something else, maybe I'll put it as an out take at the end...driving along in the mountains you come across these little shrines by the sides of the road. Our guide only told us what they signified after we had passed the first twenty or so within the stretch of a few short kilometres. The shrines are set up to mark where some unfortunate soul has died in a car accident on those treacherous roads. One or two isn't back, but it become rather unnerving when you pass five or six per every treacherous curve or bump. Someone on our bus counted up to forty before everyone else got antsy and told him to shut up... We continued passing them for the next two hours... 


	6. ---Leaving on a Jet Plane---

Chapter 6

*~*~*~*~*

Kagome never did sit Inuyasha though. In fact, she was pretty much silent for the rest of the night. By the time they reached the hotel around midnight, Inuyasha thought he might have done something severely wrong.

As it turns out however, in the moment Inuyasha's lips had met hers, Kagome's poor tired brain just didn't have the ability to process all the information needed...and therefore got rather stuck. What should she feel? Why was this happening? How should she react? Was it even real? Did he mean this? Did SHE mean this? And WHAT would her DAD think?!!

She didn't trust herself to be able to say something about it, at least not until she could function mentally again, and so she kept silent. Her only word spoken after that was a quiet "goodnight" once her packing had been mostly done and they were all climbing into bed. 

They all slept like logs for a grand total of three and a half hours...

*~*~*~*~*

And then they were off to the airport, silent, nodding off, haphazardly dressed in whatever they could understand enough to get on, Mr. Higurashi blaring music from the radio in an effort to keep himself awake...

Everything perked up a bit though once they reached the airport. Even at four thirty in the morning it was still rather busy. People carrying bags and suitcases walked past them in random swarms and then disappeared down the long, vast halls of the terminal, each speaking a different language or dressed in foreign style clothes. Shinji had hoped that, by some small miracle, the place would be absolutely packed to the brim. However, they would have to make do with what they had.

You see, since Inuyasha had no passport, no proof of citizenship and no ID of any sort, there was no way in hell they would let him get through customs. In fact, Shinji was sure that the only way they could legally get Inuyasha on a plane would involve several months, if not years of red tape, politics, trials, and not a few criminal charges. By that time, some twisted geneticist would have latched onto Inuyasha and made him into his personal guinea pig. No, the only way they were going to get Inuyasha back to Japan was by either stuffing him back into a suitcase, or sneaking him around customs. Naturally, Inuyasha had opted for the latter.

So, they reached airline teller, and processed two sets of tickets and luggage. One for Kagome, and one for "Mr. Higurashi." Mr. Higurashi showed his passport, and the ticket was approved. That done, they headed for the entrance of the gate and got ready to say their good byes. 

"I'll miss you Dad." Kagome hugged her father for the last time. (after five minutes of promising to write and be good and tell the others he said hi and so on...) He returned the embrace tightly before letting go and turning to Inuyasha. Inuyasha gulped and prayed Mr. Higurashi wouldn't yell OR hug him. Luckily, somewhere in the comfortable middle, they bowed slightly to each other before Mr. Higurashi grabbed Inuyasha's hand and shook it. Inuyasha played along with it. 

"It was nice meeting you, Inuyahsa. Hopefully it will happen again sometime..." 

Inuyasha blushed slightly, bowed and grumbled a "thankyou." He wasn't used to all these mushy formal scenes, but Shinji's genuine tone had still touched him on some level. He wanted to see him again. Even after Inuyasha had shown up and ruined his perfect vacation with his only daughter, even after he had kissed her, on stage, in front of all those people, Mr. Higurashi still didn't mind having the hanyou around. He felt strangely warm inside. 

That said, Mr. Higurashi handed Inuyasha his ticket and told him to get going...

"You have to find a way to get to the other side of that door without being seen." Mr. Higurashi told him seriously, pointing at the customs entrance. "If you get caught, don't run, and don't fight. They have weapons that can kill you before you even see the attack coming. I'll be waiting here. If they see you, stop, look confused, and try showing them your ticket. Act like you don't understand... and maybe they'll lead you back to Kagome...in the worst case, they'll ground the planes and we'll have to try something else..."

Mr. Higurashi looked contemplative for a moment, while Inuyasha tried to take in everything he was saying. After a moment he sighed and gave him a smile, "You have about one hour, good luck."

*~*~*~*~*

Kagome fidgeted nervously in her seat on the aeroplane. Inuyasha had made it past the customs check but jumping up into the large air vent system that ran throughout the airport when no one looking. It was a good thirty feet up, but that was nothing for Inuyasha. Once inside, he had crawled his way over past the checkpoint and looked for a good place to jump out without being seen. Unfortunately, that place just happened to be the women's bathroom. After he had crawled out of the grate, a lady had come in, screamed, and attracted all sorts of airport security. Luckily, Kagome had been there, and shoved Inuyasha into the right bathroom before the guards could question him. They'd laughed at the "mixed up" tourist and gone on their way. 

Even after all that however, they were not in the clear. Airlines still checked passports before allowing people to board their planes, and as previously stated, Inuyasha had none. He'd slipped in through the gate just after the flight crew before the check had started and hopefully, hidden himself on the plane well enough that they wouldn't see him. 

However, as Kagome looked around her, she saw there weren't many places to hide. The bathrooms were out, she had checked all of those looking for him, the kitchens were super compact in every way, the over head compartments were open, and every place was crawling with people...where could he be? Her heart leapt as the possibilities hit her: with airport security, lost, or even worse, on the wrong plane! She tried to imagine Inuyasha stuck in Africa or some place by himself. No it couldn't happen, it couldn't!

"Oi, Kagome, where's you're manners? You walk right past me and don't even see me?"

She stared. There he was. Somehow, he had snuck past everything and sat down beside her so silently she hadn't heard him. She gaped..."Inuyasha, when did you...how did you?"

"Keh!" He crossed his arms and sat back in his seat. "Wasn't that hard. I couldn't hide on this plane, so I just waited in the hall until people started going through. Like I said, you walked right passed me without a word!"

She continued gaping. The hall, of course, the ramp to the plane. It was really, really long and wasn't patrolled. People walking down it probably wouldn't think anything of someone just sitting quietly to the side, or at least not enough to say something...

"Hello passengers. Thank you for choosing air Japan..." 

"You made it!" She finally came out of her stupor as the aeroplane pulled away from the gate, and latched onto him like there was no tomorrow. He stiffened for a moment, before is expression softened and a blush crossed his face. 

"Stupid. you're stuck with me now. You'll never be able to leave me behind anywhere, no matter how hard you try."

His voice was gruff, but much quieter than usual, and Kagome couldn't help but notice the seemingly discreet romance in his words. He'd never leave her, she was stuck with him, her mind went back to that kiss... 

A voice cracked on the intercom...

"Starbord cross check. Everyone in their take off positions please..."

Inuyasha pulled away and looked puzzled. "Kagome, what does 'take off' mean? It'd better not be something hentai!" 

Kagome laughed slightly, but who could blame him? Erotica calendars, lust demon statues, fertility charms, belly dancers... She didn't have time to answer though as the plane suddenly came to a stop, and the engines went quiet. The air was tense with expectation and Kagome realised they were at the end of the runway. 

"Quick! Inuyasha, switch seats with me! And then put on your seat belt." Inuyasha didn't question the urgency in her tone as he took the seat beside the window and snapped the belt in place. The air began to pulse with power as a resonating hum filled the air and shook the plane. Inuyasha, caught completely off guard by this, went on alert and forgot to argue when Kagome jabbed a finger toward the window and told him to look! 

Just then, the brakes let off, and the plane rushed forward, propelled by the already stoked engines. Inuyasha felt himself being pushed back into his seat as the world outside whipped passed him. Faster and faster it went, until he wasn't even sure if it was possible to be going so fast in something so big. And then the ground dropped away from them, and the bottom fell out of Inuyasha's stomach. 

There was nothing holding them up!

Panic rushed into him so quickly he couldn't even breath. He was trapped. Trapped in this huge, oversized metal bird with nothing to prevent it from doing an about face and crashing nose first into city ground below. The city grew smaller, and smaller as they climbed higher and higher. If it suddenly fell, how would he protect Kagome when he wasn't even sure if he could survive himself. 

"Wow! This is always my favourite part!"

He glanced over his shoulder to find Kagome there, pressing up against him in an effort to see out the window. She was warm against his back, and a smile was on her lips as her eyes glistened with wonder. Without looking at him she said...

"Look Inuyasha! There's the acropolis! And the monestary! Oh look! That's the harbour where we took the boat from!" She paused, "Isn't this wonderful?"

Inuyasha did a double take. He'd been so busy panicking that he hadn't noticed how high they had risen, but Kagome was right. There it was, the whole, huge city spread out below them like a glowing pink and shadowed labyrinth in the morning light. Suddenly, it all seemed so small, and completely unreal, and then his view went grey, and great wisps of smoky like mist were streaming past his window.

"!...clouds..." was a breathless whisper that escaped his throat. They were level with, no going right through and above the clouds! So this is what they were made of, smoke. 

And then it struck him.

He was flying.

A thrill rushed through his body as all the makings of a smug, delighted grin filled his face. He was Inuyasha, and he was flying. Above all those other jerks, above the city, the buildings and the mountains and the clouds, above Kouga, and Naraku. Fuck, even the "Great Sesshoumaru" had never been this high up. A snicker, which could almost have been a giggle, escaped his mouth. He was flying. 

"Inuyasha, let me see!!"

He snapped out of his reverie to peer back at Kagome, and only then realised that he had all but plastered his face to the window. Around them, people were slowly nodding off while one of the uniformed ladies served out coffee and other drinks. Inuyasha sighed as he realised how much this place resembled a room with chairs. It didn't even feel like flying. For all he cared, it could have been another extremely large car thing. He sighed and sat back in his chair, suddenly realising how tired he was... 

"Oi, Kagome? How long until we land?"

"Hmm?" she replied sleepily "I dunno....eight hours..." 

He watched her head roll sideways, and then fall off the seat completely, then snap back up onto the headrest again, only to start falling back off. He watched in confused wonder as she repeated this process several times before getting fed up and leaning in to her to tuck her head against his shoulder. 

"Inuyasha, I'm glad you came..." She sighed slightly and drifted off to a peaceful slumber. Inuyasha raised his eyebrows in surprise for a few moment, before resting his head lightly on top of Kagome's, and soon joining her in sweet dreams of sunny vacations in modern Greece. 

*~*~*~*~*

Hours later, after terrorising stewardesses, watching many, many cheesy third rate movies, and eating what seemed like poison, but was actually airline food... 

....OHSHITOHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT....

The speaker on the plane had just informed them that they were soon going to be landing. Kagome had her ears plugged and was currently too busy trying to ease the pressure changes in her sinus cavity to talk. But Inuyasha had some major questions about landing, mainly, how?

They went lower, and Inuyasha wanted to scream. So fast! They were going so fast!! How could they stop? And the buildings... he suddenly felt sick!

"Inuyasha, aren't you're ears bothering you?"

Inuyasha made a sound like "gawk." Ears? What about his ears? How could she be worried about his ears! They were all gonna...

"I'm just saying... you're ears... are they ringing? Try swallowing or something. It helps relive the pressure..."

Pressure?!! They were going to crash!!!... ... "eh?"

No sooner had he finished that thought than the whole plane bumped and they were back on solid ground. He felt himself being pulled forward as they quickly slowed down and then, finally almost stopped. 

He took a moment to let it sink in. 

They were alive!! They had made it! Crossed half the world in only a few hours! These plane thing's were amazing...

...and for some reason, Inuyasha couldn't wait to get off! 

*~*~*~*~*

He sprinted out the first exit he came across and out into the city to avoid going through customs. There, he waited for an hour while Kagome went through customs and gathered all her luggage. He was antsy the whole time, one single thought running through his head. "Almost there, almost there!"

He finally spotted Kagome, and took off, joining her inside the yellow cab thing that took them back to the shrine. The ride couldn't be over quick enough. 

Once it was over he had to all but force himself not to run straight to the well and leap inside. Instead, he helped Kagome with her luggage and watched from the sacred tree while she greeted her family. They went inside, and Inuyasha finally made his way over to the well...

And suddenly, he wasn't so sure...

How would everyone would everyone react to his sudden re-appearance. Had they missed him? Had they even realised he was gone? If they had, were they worried?...Or ... happy? 

Only one way to find out...

"Inuyasha!"

He spun around so quickly he almost fell over. Grabbing onto the lip of the well to steady himself, he turned and stared at... "Kagome?"

"Mama said I can go see everyone in the village before it gets dark. I think I owe them an apology, since I disappeared rather suddenly." She looked nervous, and rubbed the toe of her shoe in circles against the ground. She was back in her uniform, her large knapsack on her back, though not quite as full as usual. 

Inuyasha nodded and picked her up by the loop on her backpack before dropping her, pack and all, into the well. Then he jumped in himself. 

*~*~*~*~*

Coming out on the other side, a sudden feeling of immense relaxation jolted through him so fast it was startling. Everything was just as he knew it would be. The wind whispered through the trees, the air was moist and smelt of deep forests, and in the west the sun was just starting to slant, turning everything a shade of warm golden red. 

He sighed.

He was safe now, if anything happened, he could sense it coming. He would understand, and he could deal with it, or have one of his friends help him. Not that he would ever need it, but it was nice to know they were there, just the same.

The was tugged gently out of his thoughts by a gentle hand being placed in his. Kagome...

"Come on Inuyasha! I can't wait to see everyone!"

And with that, they were heading back towards the village.

*~*~*~*~*

*A little while later, after explanations and apologies...*

"And this is for you Sango-chan, and this one's for Grandmother Kaede, and I think that's about it..." 

Kagome looked around at her friends as they sat in their hut contemplating their unwrapped gifts.

"So, this came from halfway across the world?" Sango asked, still in disbelief. 

"Uh huh. Go ahead, open it! Oh! And I got some pictures to show you." She bubbled. Inuyasha huffed at her from over in the corner of the room. Oh well, so much for a vacationing, care free Inuyasha. Kagome shook it off and turned back to her other friends, who were now, finally opening their gifts. 

"Oh wow, Kagome! It's beautiful!" Sango gasped as she unveiled a white satin shawl, stitched in sparkly silver, pearl and pale gold embroidery. 

"Isn't it!" Kagome jumped in eagerly, "That symbol stitched around the edge it the Greek symbol for immortality. And those are Greek vases." She pointed out the designs. 

"Kagome-sama, this is an excellent rosary, and a very fine make, thank you!" 

"Keh." Everyone turned, surprised as Inuyasha joined the conversation.

"Inuyasha, do you know something about this rosary?" Miroku asked, surprised that Inuyasha was willing to share...

"That's not a rosary, their called worry beads." Inuyasha jabbed an accusing finger at the silver and purple beaded chain in Miroku's hand. "It's like a toy to keep your hands busy, you perverted bozu. Kagome thought it might save you from getting smacked so often." 

"Kagome-sama?"

"Eh-hehehe..."

"Oh, this is a wonderful gift Kagome." Kagome sighed as Kaede saved her by diverting her attention. "this vase will come in quite handy, but what is this inside of it?" 

"Olive oil. The Greeks used it for everything from eating, to preserving food, to moisturising skin. They also exported it all over Europe for a lot of money."

Kaede hummed thoughtfully before bowing as best she could while sitting, and gravely saying "Thank you, Kagome, I will use this gift wisely." 

"You're welcome, Grandmother Kaede, and now for Shippo...Shippo? Do you like you're...

She stopped as she saw the little Kitsune with his face planted in a small cardboard box on the floor, greedily eating away at his present. When he finally came up for air, his hands and face were plastered with honey and pastry flakes. "Kagome!! This stuff is the BEST! Where did you get it? Can I get more, huh, huh? Did you eat this while you were in 'Guri-su'? This is SO yummy!!" 

Kagome laughed. "Actually, it was Inuyasha's idea to buy that for you. It was his favourite food while we were over there. It's called Baklava."

"Baka-lava" Shippo rolled the strange word off his tongue before glancing over at Inuyasha, "Inuyasha? Did you really get this for me??" 

Inuyasha looked from the empty box, up to Shippo, and glared. "Only because I thought you'd share you greedy pig!" He snapped. Within seconds the chase was on, until Shippo suddenly jumped into Kagome's arms and started to bawl. Kagome glared at Inuyasha and he instantly backed off. 

"Really Inuyasha, you're acting like a little kid." 

Inuyasha gave her one last glare before stomping back over to his corner and sitting down in a huff. Kagome suddenly brightened. 

"Alright! Now let's look at the pictures! I can't wait to see these, I just got them back from the developer, they haven't even been opened yet!"

The group, having been exposed to "pictures" before, all crowded around behind Kagome. Anxiously waiting. 

"Ah! Here we are, this was take from the plane on the way over. At the time, I had no Idea that Inuyasha...."

*~*~*~*~*

It didn't take Shippo too long before he got bored and leapt off of Kagome's shoulder to investigate the piles of photos on his own. Most of them seemed to have been taken by Kagome's father, although some of them were also done by Kagome, and even a very few rather crummy ones taken by Inuyasha. Shippo sifted through them quickly as he could. 

Kagome beside some white rock, Kagome with some food, Kagome and Inuyasha in some sort of carriage, fast a sleep together... 

...Wait a minute...

Kagome riding on a donkey, Kagome in front of some city, Kagome's dad and Inuyasha at a table, Kagome and Inuyasha from behind, casually holding hands... 

...nah, must be the angle...fools the eyes...

Kagome and Inuyasha in a field of flowers, Kagome and her father by a statue, Kagome and Inuyasha hugging on a boat...

...Noooo, must be some kind of mistake. Maybe it was an accident, that's right, an accident. 

Some fruit in a weird costume, more pictures of food, a building, some people on stage dancing, a half naked woman on a stage (Oh, better not show Miroku this one.) Kagome about to kiss some guy, Inuyasha looking angry, Kagome and Inuyasha ... ... ... 

... ... ... 

...Oh. this could be fun...

Shippo let out a strangled squeak. "EWWWWW! GROSSS!! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU ACTUALLY KISSED HIM KAGOME!! YOU KISSED INUYASHA!!"

Every one was still as stone for exactly three seconds. 

Inuyasha's head shot up. He paled. Kagome's eyes went the size of saucers. Sango and Miroku just looked at each other, before turning to the Kitsune....

"GIVE ME THAT!!"

There was a mad dive for the photograph as Shippo raced for the entrance of the hut as fast as his little legs could carry him. There, he paused for a moment before spinning around to face the heap of struggling teenagers and gloated. 

"Nyaa!" he teased, "It's mine now! And guess what! I'm gonna show it to the whooole village, and there's nothing you can do about it!!"

In the last second, he flashed the photo, just long enough for the other's to get a good look.

There, frozen in time, was Kagome and Inuyasha, their bodies bent almost double, him branding her lips with his own, in a very real, very passionate, 

first kiss...

*~*~*~*~*

The End!

*~*~*~*~*

AN: Okay, so no one had any time whatsoever to develop the photos, but that was just for fun. I tried to make the plane and airport stuff as real as possible, and I know you're all thinking how naive I am, but I had to get him back to Japan somehow, unless Rumikio Takahashi starts taking a sudden liking to Inu-world-travel. 

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it Until next time....

Chris-san

P.S: As Always, review and tell me what you're favourite part was and why. Thanks. 


	7. ---You open this, You read it, ALL!!---

Okay, by opening this page you have promised to read this whole note from start to finish. I actually spent time trying to answer all my reviewers questions and they just may have asked something you want to know, so please, be kind and read them. 

*~*~*~*~*

The Challenge....

Alrighty. Unfortunately, I am too busy with other stories at the moment to think up another travel story. (Although I would like to see Inuyasha's reaction to Paris...crazy drivers, snails to eat, high french society, etc.) 

So, here's the deal. You write it! You can steal my first chapter if you like (highlight, copy and paste into you're word processor) and then add in you're own ideas after that. Maybe the place you live is really strange, or maybe you've taken a vacation that would spark an interesting reaction from a Hanyou...(Red light district, Amsterdam!)... or maybe you could pull something else all together. (What happens when Kagome's luggage gets lost by the airline?)

Or you could write you're own first chapter and ideas and do whatever you like. The basic challenge in one sentence is...

"Write a fan fiction where two Inuyasha characters take a trip to a foreign land, may be modern time, past time, with two characters, or all of them." 

Good? Good!

P.S. Thanks for reading the story! I'm still waiting for some people to tell me what their favorite part is though. To all my reviewers...

****

White-Winged-Dragon: Writer of many long reviews, I thank you! It's great to hear the thoughts of the people who read your work. Not only whether or not they liked the story, but what it made them feel, do, what they hope to see out of the story, what it made them think and so on. People like you are one of the reason's I write fanfiction. 

****

Jade-Wing: I like you're summary of the chapter. It still makes me laugh. Also, you don't know the half of how scary SOME (not all) of those men can be. I had a 60 year old mechanic hit on me like Miroku does every other girl, complete with butt rub. (shuddershuddershudder) And please don't eat yourself. If you did that, how could you review any more!! ~.^

****

Dark-Angel-Wings: Of course you can't understand what they're saying. I don't speak Greek. What you're actually reading (if you didn't already guess) is a combination of the words "Hello" "Goodbye" "Thankyou" "Welcome" "Please" and whatever little bits of Greek I happened to pick up from our tour guide while I was there. 

****

Lady Priestess: I imagine that there's a bunch of these sympathy pushers over the world, in every major tourist city, and some of them can be downright low. I heard about this one lady here in Toronto, Canada. She sits on the sidewalk begging for money, shaking and claiming to have cerebral palsy. She doesn't. She has a nice apartment, food, water, and two cats. Makes you sick, doesn't it?

****

Queen: Muses are always inspiring me. Sometimes I wish they would just shut up and let me finish typing one story before sending me another. (bangs head against computer desk) If you knew about all the stuff I haven't written down, you'd shoot me!

****

Alendrum: Glad you liked it, and sorry about the beach thing. I couldn't write that in because I never went to the beach in Greece, unless you count the five seconds I stood in water up to my ankles until my feet went numb. It was march, and rather cold when I went. I stuck the beach stuff in there as a filler, because my actual trip was only seven days long. P.S. when are you going to finish Present Times, huh? Huh? I'm a big fan!

****

Leina: To be honest, I don't listen to Hanson, but I bet it was cool all the same. I find Inuyasha stories go to a lot of songs I've heard. My favorite is Sympathy by the Goo Goo Dolls.

****

Emmie-Chan: Gypsy's selling sex slaves!! Grrrrr!! I would have gone up and punched them if I had seen that. That's just WRONG!! And as for the Baklava, you and **Dark-Winged-Angel** will have to duke it out about that one, though I tried, I never got to actually eat any while I was there. Grrrr. ***The actual story is about Oedipus, a myth that many other stories, including Hamlet, touch on. Octopus was just a funny substitute to show how much Inuyasha actually cared about the myth. *** I don't see Kagome's parents as being untrusting or incredibly over protective of their daughter. They love her and they trust her to make good decisions. So, if she happens to choose Inuyasha, they aren't going to get all hyped up about it. I actually thought up a fic where Inuyasha comes to Kagome's time to live for good as a happy ending to the series, however, I haven't even begun to write it down yet. Sorry. 

****

Vorsith: If Inuyasha goes anywhere, it would be either Paris or Brittany, France, Amsterdam in Holland, or Canada. Basically, those are the only places I've ever traveled to. It's amazing what a part time job at Canadian Tire will pay for when you don't have a car and your life is spent writing fanfiction on the net... ... 

****


End file.
